FELIXaustria!
Felix Austria! (aka: The Archduke and Herbert Hinkel)
Director: Christine Beebe
Writer: Felix Pfeifle and Christine Beebe
Cinematography: Christine Beebe
Second Unit Photography: Sybille Grunze
Assistant Camera: Katrin Knigge
Still Photography: Philipp Kreidl
Animation Sequences: Lynn Sung Hae Baik, Gudrun Cram-Drach
Producers: Felix Pfeifle, Christine Beebe
Co-Producers: Robert Dassanowsky, Elfi von Dassanowsky
An emperor without a throne, a Costco greeter outlived by his obsession, and a young American custodian of the Imperial Archive who embarks on a journey to bring them all together. Three marginalized men who have dared to dream. This psychologically and aesthetically rich story is a “Quixotic Quest” like none other ever filmed.
Felix Pfeifle, archivist of Herbert Hinkel's 60+ years of correspondences with Austro-Hungarian heir and Euro-politician Archduke Otto von Habsburg, takes us on a journey that pushes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking into a creative arena of fact mixing with fantasy, reality with animation -- and brushing against impulsivity, absurdity and obsession.
The archive of Imperial Letters, spanning from 1937 to 1994, is our point of departure as the iconoclastic Felix Pfeifle experiences vanquished royalty, 20th century chivalry in the face of horrific war, historical revelations, and ultimately, three personal stories of self-invention and re-invention.
Production Country: USA
Prinicpal Photography: Los Angeles, New York, Florida, Vienna, Munich, Sarajevo and Jerusalem.
An international release for spring 2010.