WHERE NO ONE KNOWS US – OSCAR & LILLI
REVIEWS & QUOTES

Arash T. Riahi's latest feature film Where No One Knows Us - Oscar & Lilli (Wegafilm) is Austrias most successful festival film of 2020 with ten international awards.
- Austrian Film Commission
 
Sensitive and humorous. Honest cinema without kitsch.
- Saarländischer Rundfunk

Visually enchanting and emotionally touching cinematic experience.
- Saarbrücker Zeitung
 
A remarkable piece of art. Extraordinary on all levels.
- Le Figaro Magazine

Graceful and tender without sentimentalities.
- Le Monde

The exile life of two Chechen children is filmed without any boredom. The tender and touching fable by Iranian director Arash T. Riahi is carried by an impressive duo of young actors... who live in a country that lets them live but doesn't love them (…)
- Le Monde
 
Whoever feels nothing in this film has no soul, no heart.
- OÖN
 
Portrait of a Europe where humanity wins.
- Wiener Zeitung
 
A deeply human work, stirring and uplifting.
- Mottingers Meinung
 
"Where No One Knows Us" is cinema.
- ORF
 
Extremely emotional and precise. Full of hopeful moments.
- Celluloid
 
A film as poetic as it is touching.
- NÖN
 
Touching and skilfully staged.
- Falter
 
Creatively articulated modern fairytale, sometimes touching, sometimes rebellious.
- Filmgenuss.com
 
This movie is a stroke of luck.
- Kleine Zeitung

Poetic pictures, lots of feeling, great leading actors.
- Falter

Powerful drama, going to the heart...between tragedy and hope.
- Kronen Zeitung

Humour, warmth, poetry and lightness. Extremely well done.
- Der Standard

Touching odyssey of two young souls.
- Vorarlberger Nachrichten

Cheeky children's perspective with poetic moments of happiness.
- Kurier

Creatively staged; a beautiful sign of life of Austrofilm.
- TV Media

Touching political film.
- ORF

A film where everything fits.
- Celluloid

INTERNATIONAL PRESS REVIEWS

From simple innocence.
(...) The Iranian filmmaker Arash fled his homeland as a child. Riahi was ­inspired by his own experiences ­when creating Oskar's character, whose optimism immediately seduces us. Through masterful direction, his young ­actors and careful imagery, he creates a remarkable work of art. Exceptional­ on all levels. From the beginning to the end.
- Le Figaro Magazine, Nina Chouraqui

In his second feature film, the director of "For a Moment Freedom" powerfully appeals to the power of the imagination and presents a merciless portrayal of our contradictory urge for humanism. Deeply moving.
- Voici

The exile life of two Chechen children is filmed without any boredom. The tender and touching fable by Iranian director Arash T. Riahi is carried by an impressive duo of young actors (...) they live in a country that lets them live but does not love them (...) As the second part of a trilogy about exile, Iranian director Arash T. Riahi has created a kind of fairytale that comes across as neither miserable nor cautionary and is often even humorous. The film is led by a duo of young actors who are capable of revolt as well as tenderness (especially the boy who plays the good naturedness of little Gibus ("War of the Buttons") as well as the sometimes disturbing emergence of violence in Antoine Doinel ("The 400 Blows"). Arash T. Riahi films the apartment blocks with great expertise and with the eye of a sociologist, as if he wanted to reveal the soul of the inhabitants. (...) What do the children want, after all? To eat schnitzel, the most famous Austrian dish, like every Viennese. It can be one of the ambiguous lessons of this tender and moving film, in which childhood is very well described. The good conscience of one person, even the most sincere, cannot lead to the happiness of another.
- Le Monde

The drama of the refugees from the perspective of the children, between the rebellious optimism of 8-year-old Oskar and the raw emotions of teenage Lily. Behind a curtain of poetry, this drama, by turns sensitive and defiant, draws two beautiful characters, tells of their pain, their hopes and the tragedy experienced by their mother, who was forced to flee from them to protect them. It also points out the guilt of a country that owes a lot to its foreigners.
- Le Nouvel Observateur

"An ode to love. Arash T. Riahi subtly films the two deeply moving children. Apart from their fate, he also portrays several other endearing characters, from the married teachers trying to make their conscience as clear as possible to the single middle-aged woman also looking for affection.
- Point de vue

The new Arash T. Riahi begins with a very dark mood (...) but the filmmaker does not hold on to the drama with reverence - he tells, with all the energy that can give hope, of the children's inventive search for their mother. There is no black-and-white painting in the portrayal of the characters (the children as well as the foster families): Oskar and Lily make it clear that several paths can be taken, including adoption, to have a better life.
- Premier

A story that manages to break free from black-and-white painting and take us without hesitation into the atmospheric and confusing universe of two children confronted with the hardship of separation. The theme of exile nourishes the filmography of Arash T. Riahi, whose family fled Iran for Austria when he was still a child. While his first feature film, “For a Moment Freedom”, highlighted the enormity of the bureaucratic hurdles that every refugee must overcome before gaining access to freedom, Oskar and Lily, inspired by Monika Helfer's novel of the same name and the second part of the trilogy, focuses on the behaviours that children display to make a harsh reality bearable for themselves. The story, thanks to imaginative staging and childlike candour, never sinks into misery and avoids any accumulation of clichés that would jeopardise its authenticity and the immediate empathy such a subject evokes.... Sometimes aerial shots or upside-down camera angles lift the mood to another level and the narrative is removed from raw reality to also celebrate the grace of the story. It thereby takes the point of view of these two children of different ages and transports us into a world of poetry and dreams, a necessary escape to hide the pain and give colour to a story entangled in a partisan discourse ... A balance is struck between humour and resignation, between grace and disappointment, between lightness and pugnacity, largely sustained by the accuracy and spontaneity of the two young actors who carry the film from beginning to end without ever faltering...A touching and necessary humanist manifesto.
- A Voria Lire, Claudine Levanneur

Exile, identity, freedom-truths that disturb. Iranian filmmaker Arash T. Riahi manages to touch us with difficult themes. The tone of this second film by Iranian director Arash T. Riahi is a mixture of rebelliousness, boldness and poetry. Without consciously meaning to, these young refugees who lose their innocence evoke a sense of guilt in the adults ­who would like to be better people. When the elders are confronted with them, truths come to light that are sometimes very unpleasant. However, Riahi ­does not ­want to lecture in any way, but rather to touch. The two main actors blow up the screen with their performance and dream of a better future. Told with sensitivity, without black and white painting and without pathos.
- Le Figaro, Nathalie Simon

PRESS REVIEWS GERMANY
 
Author and director Arash T. Riahi presents a visually enchanting and emotionally moving film experience with "Ein bisschen bleiben wir noch". From the children's point of view, the viewer experiences the story of the two siblings Oskar and Lilli, refugees from Chechnya, who are separated from their war-traumatised mother and placed in various foster families in Austria.
The Austrian director of Iranian origin borrows freely from the 1994 novel "Oskar and Lilli" by Monika Helfer ­and finds a subtle and sensitive visual language. He illuminates the emotions of his characters cautiously but effectively. Key moments, not of the plot, but of the children's emotional world, are impressively composed - this also succeeds through sometimes unusual shots, which, however, work wonderfully harmoniously ­even with such a simple prop as a candy wrapper. The stumbling of Oskar and Lilli and the few soulmates they ­meet in their search for each other ­and for their mother flows in beautiful poetic images without ever coming close to kitsch, excess or ­mannerism. Moreover, the young actors Leopold Pallua and Rosa Zant and their authentic acting are a discovery.
- Saarbrücker Zeitung

One of the really outstanding entries in the Feature Film Competition is "Ein bisschen bleiben wir noch". I don't even know where to start, it's so great! It's about two children who are taken away from their mother because she can no longer take care of them. Then the siblings are also separated, but they keep trying to find each other. It's a very sad story, but through the narration and the dialogue, the film manages to have many endearing moments, and also ones that make you smile again and again. The actors in this film are also great, especially the two children, who couldn't have been carved better for such a film.
- SR

The Chechen refugee children Oskar and Lilli end up in different foster families after their mother attempts suicide­. But no hurdle is too great to separate them. Director Arash Riahi succeeds in telling his story sensitively and with a lot of humour. At the same time, there is not one laugh too many, tragedy and comedy are always well nuanced. An excellent cast, a successful composition of images and a lot of attention to detail create atmospheric and touching cinema that comes across honestly and without kitsch.
- SR.de

FOR A MOMENT FREEDOM
REVIEWS & QUOTES

Smooth balance of realism, warmth, suspense, humor and tragedy. Bittersweet, quite moving. - Variety

Touching story that rings unbearingly true. - Arts & Opinion

A film which successfully links great emotions and powerful issues. - Kinozeit.de

The everyday life of refugees could hardly be described more powerfully. Individual narratives are masterfully interwoven (...) to create a magnificent success. - Cinema

A powerful film, which breathes hope and grips the audience from the very first moment. An absolute gem: sensitive and of huge contemporary relevance. - FBW

A sensitive and moving film - La Croix, Arnaud Schwartz

A realistic drama, sensitively and impressively handled.
- Ouest France

Riahi achieves a double artistic success, presenting us with a masterpiece of Iranian exile cinema while at the same time jettisoning all national and ideological ballast. He focuses on the fundamental human desire for freedom and self-determination. A universal, contemporary and timeless political film jewel.
- Kulturnews

A moving film that takes us on a journey. As in Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo, the approach is documentary. (...) At the same time, it was important for documentary filmmaker Arash T. Riahi, who himself emigrated from Iran to Austria, to distance himself from his sources in his first feature film. Relying on poetic realism, with great care in image design and editing, For a Moment Freedom primarily addresses the heart of its viewers. It is the compassion shown to the film's characters that makes their story so interesting. The necessary subtlety is provided by the screenplay, acting and direction. One would like to wish this film a large audience. A moving film, with great care in image design and editing, subtle script.
- L'Humanité, Jean Roy

“For a Moment Freedom” is an intense and sensitive film that remains in the memory for a long time. It belongs in a series with films like “La Blessure”, which shake you up, move you and do not leave you unmoved. A powerful film about the difficult fate of all those emigrants who leave their country despite everything. A great cinematic experience. Through various intersecting fates, “For a Moment Freedom” shows the difficulties that await all who want to emigrate to the West, whether they come from Iran, Kurdistan or elsewhere, whether they are alone, in pairs or accompanied by children, whether they are wanted by the police or dream of a free and better life. Disarming, powerful and in places tough, “For a Moment Freedom” is a complete success for a feature film debut. A film that awakens and moves.
- DVDRAMA, Jean-Baptiste Guegan

“For a Moment Freedom” is one of those rare and important films that change the way we look at the world. - Marianne, Allan Kaval

THE SOUVENIRS OF MR. X
REVIEWS & QUOTES

This film is a passionate tribute to the publicly unappreciated moments created by enthusiastic film dreamers like Mr X. To the tens of hours they have spent editing and dubbing their films, producing cinematic gems - some hilarious, some touching - but most of which have ultimately ended up in the archive of the dustbin.
- ORF.at

Great emotions in bright colours: Life is a film! - ARD.de

Loving homage to the creators of the 3-minute films. - TVToday
 
The result is an ironic and loving homage to a cinematic subculture, whose members cherish the desire to find something special in their everyday monotony.
- Filmdienst.de