Michael H - Profession: Director

Over the past two-and-a-half decades, director Michael Haneke has established himself as a towering figure in modern cinema with his uniquely controversial and challenging films that have polarized audiences and critics alike for decades. Such works as "Funny Games" (1997 and 2007: he remade his own film), "The Piano Teacher" (2001), "Caché" (2005), and Oscar-winning "Amour" (2012) explore both the dark and the loving sides of human existence – often at the same time, and almost always in unforgettable ways.

Now, Yves Montmayeur, who has made the "making-of" documentaries for most of Haneke’s films, turns his lens on Haneke himself, unravelling a working method that reveals a great deal about the man. As much a meditation on the nature of film as any of Haneke’s works themselves, "Michael H – Profession: Director" uses interviews with Haneke’s creative collaborators as well as re-contextualized footage from his films. The documentary finds a compelling tension between the warmth of the man and the horrors in his films, and is a fascinating portrait of one of the most important filmmakers of our day. – Vermont FF

Austria / France 2013