Tribute to 25 Years of GRAF FILM Production Klagenfurt
The days when former ice-hockey star Harri Pinter was cheered on by his fans as a “bastard” and women adored him are long gone. And when his girlfriend then heads off headlong into a new relationship, Harri Pinter finds himself right in the middle of a deep midlife crisis. But then he accepts the challenge to win back his love. And it turns out to be the toughest battle he has ever had to win.
Originally planned as a TV film for the popular ORF “Stadtkomödie” series, the Carinthian ice-hockey comedy proved to be such a roaring success during production that it was released in cinemas instead. The decision paid off: Harri Pinter, Drecksau became a massive box-office hit, drawing around 15,000 viewers in Carinthian cinemas alone. Through the protagonist’s adventures, Andreas Schmied’s entertaining comedy tackles central themes such as the midlife crisis and personal growth through a series of unexpected challenges.
STATEMENT BY ACTOR JÜRGEN MAURER:
“Klaus Graf came to me after The Miracle of Carinthia (Das Wunder von Kärnten) and told me he wanted to have a film written specifically for me – naturally, I took that as a compliment, but I didn’t take it entirely seriously at first. Two years later, we met in Vienna; he walked up to me and said: ‘Harri Pinter, you bastard, that’s you.’ As it turned out, the two brilliant writers, Weingartner and Hafner, really had me in mind while writing – and I think they truly hit the mark. I feel very much at ease in the role; the character suits me like a tailored suit.”
STATEMENT BY ACTRESS JULIA CENCIG:
“It’s very liberating to act in a dialect. At drama school, they drive the dialect right out of you, and suddenly you’re allowed to do everything you’ve always tried to avoid. There’s an acting exercise where you learn a text in a dialect and make it your own – well, here that exercise was basically being filmed live. Of course, you’re always closest to your native tongue, which is why it was a deeply emotional experience for me.”
DIRECTOR’S BIO:
Andreas Schmied was born and raised in Styria, Austria, in 1976. He began his directing career in his teens, shooting shorts with friends and music videos for local musicians. After moving to Vienna, Schmied shot dozens of low-budget videos, serving as his own cinematographer, editor, and production designer. Soon after, he founded his own TV production company, SofaSafari, writing, producing, and directing numerous works for television. In 2013, he made his feature film debut with the blue-collar comedy Werkstürmer. Among his other feature films are Harri Pinter, Drecksau (2017), Love Machine (2019), Love Machine 2 (2022), Pulled Pork (2023), and Neo Nuggets: A Pulled Pork Comedy (2025). He is co-founder of the production company Samsara Filmproduktion.
