Austria 2026
Directors, Producers, Editors: Aleksandra Kołodziejczyk and Karl Wratschko
Actresses: Mara Mattuschka and Karolina Preuschl
Camera: Mira Klug
Runtime: 23 minutes
Original Format: 4K
Screening Format: DCP, colour, sound

Funded by the City of Vienna (MA7). Developed with the Auslandsstipendien Filmkunst 2024 (Foreign Film Scholarship 2024) from the BMKOES

Two actresses meet for a read-through to prepare for an upcoming film shoot. The scenes they rehearse explore the historical phenomenon of hysteria—its ties to gender norms and its function as a tool to control women.

The archival material reviewed during the rehearsal—among it a “diva film” from the silent era—helps the actresses develop their roles. The diva film links the medical construction of hysteria to cinema’s depiction of “emotional breakdowns” in female characters—representations that still resonate today.

Through the interplay of performance, spoken text, and archival footage, DIVO dismantles socially assigned behavioral patterns for dealing with moments of crisis and turns them into the subject of critical reflection. At the same time, it is an homage to collaborative artistic work and to art as an open-ended, collective process.