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In the Paintings´ Shadow

An artist.
A lesbian.
A Nazi.
She wants to belong.
To the art world. To history. To power.
This cinematic essay tells the story of an expressionist artist whose unconditional independence leads to a striking contradiction of the 20th century.
Coming from a poor farming family, she fights her way into the Viennese art scene. She defies gender norms. She lives openly as a homosexual woman at a time when this is a criminal offense and disguises herself as a man during World War I in order to go to the front.
She demands visibility for women's art in spaces that are systematically designed to exclude it.
And yet her aspirations lead her to an ideology that contradicts everything she once stood for: she becomes an official of the Nazi regime, a staunch National Socialist.
The film approaches this figure without moral simplification. It asks how resilient art is when right-wing ideologies occupy cultural spaces and what this story says about our present.

  • Birgitta Weizenegger
    Director
  • Birgitta Weizenegger
    Writer
  • Birgitta Weizenegger
    Producer
  • Irina Wrona
    Key Cast
    "Stephanie Hollenstein"
  • Konrad Deissner
    Sounddesign
  • André Klar
    sound mixing
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Im Schatten der Bilder
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 31 minutes 41 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 11, 2025
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Country of Filming:
    Austria, Germany
  • Language:
    English, German
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Birgitta Weizenegger

Nominations – Awards

2024 – Nomination for the fiction series concept Heroines in Series – a series concept featuring a female character aged 55+ in a STEM profession with international distribution – Film in Austria, Federal Ministry Vienna.
2021/22 – VG Wort Scholarship
2017 – Special Mention: DOK Munich for Staufner G’schichten (Director/Project Lead)
2013 – Nomination: Millbrook Screenwriting Award, International Hof Film Festival / Debut film 66 min
Herbstflattern (Writer)
2013 – Nomination: New German Cinema Promotion Award, International Hof Film Festival / Debut film 66 min
Herbstflattern (Director)

Film Work – Documentary and Fiction

Fin
In the Shadow of the Images, 91 min / docu-fiction

In Post - Production
Theatre Maker from the Allgäu, 60 min / documentary

2014 – 2022
Documentary Hollenstein – An Approach, short documentary, 20 min, Lustenau/Austria

Commissioned by MDR in collaboration with various production companies in Leipzig: Saxonia Entertainment / Günther / Bigalke TV / Cine Impuls

Documentary – Lifesavers, 20 episodes of 45 min each / writer and director
Documentary – Looking for a Successor, 3 episodes of 10 min / writer and director
Documentary – The Most Beautiful Summer of Your Childhood, 25 min / writer and director
Docu-fiction – D’Staufner verzählen, 60 min / production, script, and direction

78 short films and documentaries, 5–60 min, commissioned by BKM as part of Culture Makes Us Strong – production, script, and direction

2013 – Debut feature film: Herbstflattern, 66 min / script, direction, and production
Still available online via Sooner, Apple, and Amazon

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Director Statement


I see my storytelling as a form of approach, one in which the audience is invited to find their own answers.