Houchang Allahyari Movies

Politically enforced racial prejudice is parodied in this dark comedy from Austria. Stefan (Karl Markovics) is a bureaucrat with the Austrian government who supervises immigration issues; Stefan's politics lean rather strongly to the right and he has little use for people from abroad. Stefan and his wife Marion (Julia Stemberger) are expecting a baby, and when Marion goes into labor, she arrives at the hospital's maternity ward at the same time as Emine (Meltem Cumbul) and her husband Emre (Ahmet Ugurlu), a couple of Turkish birth who are also about to have a child. Marion and Emine end up sharing a room, leading to an argument between Stefan and Emre. Emre's quarrel with Stefan turns out to be an omen of things to come; though he and his wife have been living in Austria for close to ten years, a mix-up with the immigration department forces the couple and their young child to return to Turkey. However, a nurse at the hospital informs Marion of a terrible mistake -- she was accidentally given Emine's baby, and vice versa, and so Stefan and Marion travel to Turkey, hoping to track down the recently deported couple and exchange their children. Geboren in Absurdistan was directed by Allahyari Houchang, who began his career in Iran before relocating to Vienna in the wake of the Islamic revolution. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Ali Mohammed teaches German in Iran, his native country, and he tries to be a faithful Muslim: he is certainly devout. He has flown to Vienna from Iran with his sister and his son and must wait there until he gets a visa to visit the U.S., which was his planned destination. He has put the family up at a hotel for immigrants and is horrified to see the immoral influence this setting has on his son and sister. In the first place, the hotel is directly across from a brothel, and his son begins to hang out with the establishment's women. Their influence leads him to get involved with some local cut-ups; joining them in a prank, he is arrested. Meanwhile, the teacher's hitherto modest sister is happily being wooed by a Polish man and is behaving more like a Western woman every day. On top of that, his landlady is trying to put the make on him. By the time he has adapted to all these situations, the idea of relocating to the U.S. has become much less appealing to him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Thomas Linder (Michael Lakner) is a piano student who arrives for his lesson and finds that his teacher, a wheelchair-bound homosexual, has been murdered. After he runs from the police at the murder scene, Thomas is arrested and charged with his mentor's murder and is falsely accused of being gay. Under duress, he confesses to the crime, even though he did not do it. His kindly grandmother tries to bail him out of jail and seems to be the only family member concerned for Thomas' safety. Thomas has nightmares in jail as he relives the death of his father and suffers from the stress of incarceration. The grandmother provides the only moments of comedy relief in this somber crime drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi