Markus Schleinzer

In Markus Schleinzer’s long-awaited second feature and true-story drama, a young African boy is abducted, sold, and forced into 18th-century Viennese court life where he must wrestle with the restrictions placed upon him by society.
Inspired by surviving records about the life of Angelo Soliman, an 18th-century Viennese “court moor,” Angelo tells the story of a young African boy who is Europeanized by force. Although director Markus Schleinzer’s grandiose period drama is set back in the courts of the Habsburg empire, its lessons also apply to the present.Read More »

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A protege of Michael Haneke, Markus Schleinzer’s “Michael” is a triumph of uneasy cinema. With an unorthodox level of restraint, the director tells the story of a dull office drone who keeps a kidnapped young boy locked in his house. Despite its subversive edge, “Michael” successfully drains the shock out of a frightening premise and instead delivers a keen observational thriller. From its opening minutes, “Michael” reveals its alarming plot with a patient, naturalistic atmosphere.Read More »