My Fathers, My Mother and Me (German: Meine Keine Familie), 2012.
Directed by Paul-Julien Robert.
SYNOPSIS:
Communal property, free sexuality, dissolution of the nuclear family – these were the basic principles of the Friedrichshof, the largest commune in Europe founded by the Viennese Actionist Otto Mühl at the beginning of the 1970s.
In My Fathers, My Mother and Me, the director Paul-Julien Robert, who was born into this commune, embarks on a personal journey into his past. Including archive material made public for the first time in this film, the director confronts himself and his mother with the question “What is family?”.
At the beginning of this film I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. Would it be open and honest? Would it ask the hard questions? Are these kinds of commune really as peculiar as they seem? Simply put, yes.
From the offset, this film is frank, honest and at times chilling as we slowly learn more about the commune and the practices that went on there.
Beginning with footage of the director as a seemingly happy child with his mother, all looks well. Immediately though, the voiceover bluntly states that this was a staged video that was filmed so his mother could earn some extra money – this sort of brutal honesty is what this documentary is all about.
The director pulls no punches with his questioning – whether he’s talking to his mother, fathers or a fellow child of the commune. While this makes for compelling viewing, it does send shivers down your spine as you come to realise both how easily people can be controlled and how good the average childhood is.
The only things that you can think, as you will at many points in the film, are “How can people let this get to this point?” or more directly “What were these people thinking?” While the film does have a lot of answers for you, it doesn’t really seem to have any that will leave you fully comprehending exactly what was going through people’s heads.
I’ll admit that the commune started out innocently enough (the mass orgies that took place at night aside) but sure enough the human condition took over until it was effectively an authoritarian state run by one man: Otto Mühl.
From the very beginning I would have questioned some of Mühl’s behaviour or his background in ‘action art’ (unfortunately you have to see the ‘action art’ that he was famed for and it is not something you will forget easily). A sane and well balanced person would have had alarm bells ringing warning you that he is not quite a normal chap. Somehow though, people seemed to flock to him; first in small numbers but eventually in hundreds.
Admittedly this is a fairly vague review of the film but I would say that this documentary must be seen to be fully understood. All I will say however, is that My Fathers, My Mother and Me is a brilliantly honest exploration of a disturbing way of living a life and that it should be viewed with the knowledge that it will give you something to think about for many an hour.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Ozzy Armstrong is a Stargate and Rocky superfan. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published October 13, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
