Born on a vast farmstead in Kenya to a former Italian cavalry officer and a student of Rodin, lovers who abandoned their marriages to create a new life, Mirella Ricciardi grew up steeped in the contradictions and reckless optimism of empire. Ricciardi captured her world, photographing East African communities in what would become the iconic Vanishing Africa, and became famous overnight. Celebrated for its intimacy and craft, the work also bears the imprint of the colonial gaze, its aesthetics of disappearance raising ambiguities around authorship, representation, and power.
A striking figure both in front of and behind the camera, she found herself in the artistic elite of 1960s Rome, where she was admired, photographed, and often exoticized her colonial origins and arresting beauty fuelling a fascination that was not entirely her own. She even played herself in Antonioni's L'Eclisse, embodying a version of herself shaped as much by others' gaze as by her own. Now in her nineties, Ricciardi chooses not to have her face filmed. Her presence lingers only through her voice and the images she allows, as she attempts to guide director Oliver Bruck with an elusive but forceful hand. The result is a portrait defined as much by absence as appearance.
MIRELLA is a meditation on power, beauty, and loss. At its core lies a woman who, in her life, negotiates the tension between authorship, visibility, and erasure, shaped by a colonial world she once embodied but that no longer exists.
Internationale Hofer Filmtage 2025, DE
„Ein Film der Hoffnung und der Humanität. Genau diese Geschichte braucht unsere Welt jetzt.“ (Loud and Clear Reviews)
ein Film von Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor
UK 2025, 78 Minuten, IF mit dt. UT, FSK ab 12
Mi, 10.12., 20.40, KIZ Royal Kino, Graz
Mo 15.12., 20.00, Votivkino Wien
Do 18.12., 20.10, Volkskino Klagenfurt
Do 18.12., 20.30 Cinema-Paradiso Baden
Do 25.12., 20.30 Cinematograph Innsbruck
Ein Film von Jasmila Žbanic
BOSNISCHER OSCAR-BEITRAG 2026 "Best Feature Film"
DAS KINO, Salzburg 13.1.2026 Film + Talk
Hamburg: Studio Kino 27.11.-1.12.
weitere Kino folgen
ORT OHNE ERINNERUNG. KAISERSTEINBRUCH, die verschwundene Geschichte
Ein Film von Reinhard Tötschinger
täglich im Metro Kinokulturhaus Wien bis 3.12.
Sonderveranstaltung Film+Lesung+ Gespräch Mo 1.12., 20.00
Metro Kinokulturhaus
Innsbruck-Premiere am Fr 28.11., 20.00 Leokino
In Anwesenheit des Regisseurs und Protagonistin
Graz-Premiere am Mi 3.12., 18.00 KIZ Royal Kino
Gespräch mit Reinhard Tötschinger nach dem Film, Moderation: Harry Prinz
Linz-Premiere am Fr 5.12. Moviemento
Gespräch mit Reinhard Tötschinger nach dem Film, Moderation: Michael John (Kulturwissenschaftler und Historiker)
Tickets in den jeweiligen Kinos erhältlich!
Erlebt echte Kinomomente bei euch im Ort!
Eine Vielzahl ausgewählter Filme findet Ihr auf
Kino Vod Club, Watch AUT
BiH´s entry for the 98th ACADEMY AWARDS
in the category: BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Österreich Premiere:
KITZBÜHEL FILM FESTIVAL
28.11., 17.00
In Anwesenheit von Martin Nguyen und Renate Welsh
THIS HUMAN WORLD
5.12., 19.00 Topkino, Wien
14-18 November: IDFA
Our films at DOCS for SALE:
BLUM - Masters of their own destiny
directed by Jasmila Zbanic
Bosnian OSCAR entry "Best Int. Feature Film" 2026
OPEN
directed by Diana Fabianova
One World Film Festival 2025, SK I Ji.hlava Film Festival 2025 (Opus Bonus Competition), CZ