My Talk with Florence Synopsis

Two Persons. One Tape. One Interview. No Cuts. No tricks. One of the most brutal and disturbing pieces of oral history. Florence Burnier-Bauer was born in Paris in 1949 to an upper middle-class family with Russian roots. Raped by her Granddad at an early age and passed around in secret men's circles, she was hushed by electro-shocks in the insane asylum. Then she fled to the bohemian hobo lifestyle of the swinging sixties, taking off to a life of crime, bringing up three children on the road. Searched by the French police, she thought to find a safe haven in the free-loving Austrian Friedrichshof-Commune, led by Actionist Artist Otto Mühl. That is where hell really began. In 1989 Florence was able to escape. Her court appearance brought Mühl to jail for pedophilia, rape and orchestrated abuse. Her story is a highly unsettling testimonial about a time, known for its social liberalization. It is a showdown with counterculture icon Otto Mühl, previous documentaries had only hinted at. And a disturbing chronic to a shattered but unbroken life. And a ground-shaking mirror to the shadows behind the years of the post-war European Witschaftswunder, that shows how fascist structures and thinking was able to silently live on in the social underneath, even of the extreme left. —Paul Poet

Two Persons. One Tape. One Interview. No Cuts. No tricks. One of the most brutal and disturbing pieces of oral history. Florence Burnier-Bauer was born in Paris in 1949 to an upper middle-class family with Russian roots. Raped by her Granddad at an early age and passed around in secret men's circles, she was hushed by electro-shocks in the insane asylum. Then she fled to the bohemian hobo lifestyle of the swinging sixties, taking off to a life of crime, bringing up three children on the road. Searched by the French police, she thought to find a safe haven in the free-loving Austrian Friedrichshof-Commune, led by Actionist Artist Otto Mühl. That is where hell really began. In 1989 Florence was able to escape. Her court appearance brought Mühl to jail for pedophilia, rape and orchestrated abuse. Her story is a highly unsettling testimonial about a time, known for its social liberalization. It is a showdown with counterculture icon Otto Mühl, previous documentaries had only hinted at. And a disturbing chronic to a shattered but unbroken life. And a ground-shaking mirror to the shadows behind the years of the post-war European Witschaftswunder, that shows how fascist structures and thinking was able to silently live on in the social underneath, even of the extreme left. —Paul Poet

January 21, 2022 at 12:51 PM