Benny (Arno Frisch), a teenager from a comfortable Viennese family, is obsessed with video cameras and violent imagery. He spends much of his time alone in his room, recording and watching disturbing videos. Benny’s detachment from reality deepens when he invites a girl to his home and kills her without emotion or provocation, recording the murder on video. When his parents discover what he has done, they don’t go to the police. Instead, they embark on a chilling plan to cover up the crime, even taking Benny on a trip to Egypt to maintain appearances. Haneke uses static shots, surveillance-style framing, and long takes to force the audience into the role of a passive observer, mirroring Benny’s own dispassionate consumption of violence.

Notes by David O’Mahony.

Screening as part of Complicit: The Films of Michael Haneke.