The Seventh Continent

The day-to-day life of an apparently normal Austrian family takes a sinister turn when their daughter suddenly pretends to be blind. The Seventh Continent portrays with clinical detachment the spiritual emptiness of consumer culture and the horror that lurks beneath its placid surfaces, introducing the director's vision of the link between violence and our culture of manufactured emotions. Inspired by a true story, Michael Haneke's first feature film is a chilling portrait of bourgeois anomie and its path to self-destruction.

Duration: 105’
Production year: 1989
Country: AT
Language: DE Subtitles: PT

Cannes Film Festival 1989 - Official Selection
Locarno Film Festival 1989 - Official Selection in Competition, Ernest Artaria Prize

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Michael Haneke

Born into a family with ties to cinema, Haneke began his career as a writer and film critic, making his debut as a theater director in the 1970s. His first feature film, The Seventh Continent (1989), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, launching his international career. With Funny Games (1997), he established himself as one of the most significant figures in world cinema, renowned for his precise and unsentimental portrayals of contemporary society, the way he directs his actors and his uncompromising, often harrowing, narrative structures. His films, including masterpieces like The Piano Teacher (2001), Hidden (2005), The White Ribbon (2009), and Amour (2012), have won numerous awards.