Austrian filmmaker Daniel Hoesl and German partner Julia Niemann have made a name for themselves by focusing their black comedy and documentary movies on money and capitalism and how the resulting power imbalances cause social inequality. Hoesl’s 2016 film WINWIN, for example, is a comedy about a U.S. investment fund that buys Austrian companies but also takes over politics in its capital Vienna. And the 2020 documentary Davos, co-directed by the two and written by Niemann, puts a spotlight on the contrast between the lives of those who live in the Swiss town of Davos year-round and the business and political elite that gathers there for the annual World Economic Forum.
Their latest film, Veni Vidi Vici, which debuted at Sundance 2024 and is getting its U.K. premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival on Saturday, with another screening on Sunday, looks to slay the excesses of capitalism with dark humor. Amon Maynard, portrayed by Laurence Rupp (Barbarians, Vienna Blood), is an elegant billionaire and a devoted family man – and, oh yes, a cold-blooded killer. The hunter “has enough money to get away with just about anything – even random murders,” notes a synopsis of the film.
Written by Hoesl, the film’s cast also includes Ursina Lardi as Amon’s wife Viktoria, Olivia Goschler as their daughter Paula, Markus Schleinzer, Nahoko Fort-Nishigami, Kyra Kraus, Tamaki Uchida, Dominik Warta, and Johanna Orsini.
Hoesl and Niemann talked to THR about just how timely their film is, including due to U.S. politics, why they decided to juxtapose deadly jokes with scenes of the idyllic everyday family life of your average billionaire family, and what’s next for them.
Veni Vidi Vici is set in Austria but feels like it skewers themes and issues that have no borders. How universal a story is this for you?
Julia Niemann When Daniel wrote the script, about 10 years ago, it was maybe too early for its time. We didn’t manage to finance the film the first time around. And then years later, we financed it, and we shot the film, and while we shot and edited it, there were other films coming out about the topic, for example, (Emerald Fennell’s) Saltburn or Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, and (TV series) Succession as well. And we thought, “Oh, my God, it’s like we have been overtaken by time and we are just too late. But now it’s so present again, with what’s happening, not only in the U.S., but mostly in the U.S. It really feels timely.
Daniel Hoesl Actually, now this film, which is a film about the power of billionaires and, on the other hand, the price of money, which 99 percent of us are dealing with, is really very much en vogue. Of course, a group of billionaires basically just bought themselves into the U.S. government and are dismantling it.
Our film starts with a quote by Ayn Rand, and Ayn Rand is a very important figure for libertarian thinking. We made a film about Davos and the World Economic Forum before, so we really think we have expertise in the super-rich. Even though we have a working-class background, we got to meet through research a lot of super-rich people. And I tell you, these people are different kinds of animals. And now with the second coming of Donald Trump, the quote of our film is very important again. The quote is: “The point is, who will stop me?” That’s the Ayn Rand quote (from The Fountainhead). And now look what’s going on in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Niemann We just wanted to make a satire about the super-rich. But now it feels like it has become reality, and that’s so frightening.
Hoesl I totally agree. I learned from our own film that we live in the post-satirical world, in post-ideological times.
How do you balance the scary and dark with the light and humorous to hit the tone you are looking for?
Hoesl When I wrote the screenplay, I wrote the last scene of the film first, so this could give the tonality to the film as an ending point. I don’t want to spoil things but this is how we wanted to end the film. (Throughout) the film, it was very important to create a family that does not adhere to the cliches of super-rich villains as seen in many other films. They can be very nice, and because it’s family first, we derive a story that the rest of the world might not be as important.
Niemann The screenplay is, in a way, very grim and dark, although it’s a satire. But with the film and its (look and feel), we never wanted it to be as grim and dark. We never intended to show any nuances of horror or thriller. We just wanted to make a warm family film. We really wanted to work with the actors to make them sympathetic, to really make this family charming, to make a light movie, a bright movie –something warm that’s welcoming you and then swallowing you.
Hoesl Aesthetically, if you think of a clown, a clown can be very funny, but a clown can also be very scary. This is a thin line that we are maybe walking on. Even our protagonist is in a dilemma. Because if we ask ourselves “Who is going to stop me,” he is in a terrible dilemma because nobody’s going to stop him, so he can do whatever he wants, and he gets away with anything. And if he has one gram of empathy left, which he might or might not have, it’s a challenging position that he’s in. And it’s scary and also funny to observe.
How interesting will it be for you two to see the reaction of audiences in Glasgow?
Niemann Generally speaking, it’s just always exciting to see how different people from different nations react in very different ways to our films. I think it’s interesting that in societies where there’s lots of money, people tend to like this film more – societies where money plays a big role, for example, in Frankfurt or Zurich. So I’m really excited to see what Scottish people have to say about our film. It’s a very divisive film. We always have interesting Q&As where there’s a lot of discussion, and that’s all we ever wanted for the film. We didn’t want people to just have nothing to say about it – either you like it or you hate it, but you have to watch it to decide which side you are on.
Hoesl Scotland is the birthplace of (economist and philosopher) Adam Smith who wrote The Wealth of Nations. He is a very important thinker when it comes to economics, of course. He basically said that a nation can be wealthier when it trades with its neighbors, and they get wealthy too. That would also mean that individually, we have to look after our neighbors, and then we are all better off together. That’s why I’m really looking forward to seeing if that Adam Smith spirit, one way or another, is still around.
The invisible hand that Adam Smith wrote about keeps coming up in your films as they take on neoliberalism…
Hoesl I think this is really ruling the world again right now, with an oligarchy in a plutocracy. I think it has played out pretty well for neoliberal thinking, and also for the Austrian School of Economics, by the way – we can build a bridge from (Friedrich) Hayek to Adam Smith. But back to filmmaking. This is a satire, and I think it would be better if reality finds a bridge back to where satire does not rule our reality.
What are your cinematic influences?
Hoesl I love Alan Clarke’s films. We’re both big fans of his. He really shaped my image of the U.K., from The Firm to Scum but also weird films, like Penda’s Fen (, part of BBC anthology TV series Play for Today). There is a lot of crazy stuff from the U.K.
What’s next for you two?
Niemann We are both working on solo screenplays. Right now I’m working on a psycho thriller about the narcissistic society we are living in.
Hoesl I have a film now, which is called Un grand casino (that world premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival), which is completely different. But again, it is about the price of money and about Adam Smith too.
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