Frazzled and disheveled with a needle in her arm, Helga Wachter (Verena Altenberger) looks up at a medical officer with tired, determined eyes while he draws her blood. “Can you imagine what it’s like to wake up in the morning and have no clue how you’re going to survive the whole day?” she queries desperately, as the vial fills up. The medical officer suggests writing her a prescription for an antidepressant to clear her head and help her care better for her son, but that’s not quite the antidote she’s looking for. Like most people in the throes of heroin addiction, Wachter is looking to break free from the shackles of her addiction and regain sobriety. Based on a true-life story, The Best of All Worlds (Die beste aller Welten) is a poignant account of Director Adrian Goiginger’s upbringing by heroin-addicted parents.
See ‘The Best of All Worlds’ on February 28, 2018 @7:45pm at Cinema Village (22 East 12th Street) as part of New York City’s 7th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival. Winter Film Awards’ Lianna Albrizio spoke to Producer Wolfgang G. Ritzberger about the film.
Loosely based on the life story of Director Adrian Goiginger, The Best of All Worlds is a poignant account of his tragic childhood enduring an irresponsibly dangerous upbringing with a mother and stepfather who spend their days partying with other aimless, childlike adults in a messy apartment. With addiction a difficult concept for an 8-year-old to grasp alongside the juvenile behavior exhibited by his parents, (e.g. one of their junkie friends who goes by the flippant nickname “The Greek” forces vodka into the boy’s pursed lips after a lost arm wrestle) Adrian analogizes addiction as a shackled demon in his fantasy world and which he and his distant grandfather – who was an intrepid adventurer in a previous century – hunt down with his bow and meticulously handcrafted arrowhead. While Adrian is picking up what he thinks are “cool” pastimes from his parents – like smoking and setting off firecrackers at school – this careless lifestyle leads to catastrophic consequences that turn heartbreak into a triumphant breakthrough through divine intervention.
Lianna Albrizio: The Best of All Worlds is based on a true story of Helga and Gunter Wachter and their son Adrian. How did the director know the family?
Wolfgang G. Ritzberger: The little Adrian in the movie is the director as a young child – it is not only a true story, it is the story about the director’s childhood. His mother died in 2012 because of cancer. She had been clean for almost 12 years and Adrian Goiginger was starting the script about his mother, his stepfather and his childhood – a tribute to his mother, to her love and strength – a movie about a love story between a mother and her child.
Lianna: The story highlights the dangerous domino effect that the negative consequences of drug addiction can have on a family. For instance, a mother and stepfather setting a bad example for their child and even influencing him to start smoking. The mother’s addiction effects her ability to hold down a job and she even endangers her own son’s life. How much of these events were based on true life and which were fictionalized?
Wolfgang: Nearly 90% of the movie truly happened the way it is portrayed. The drug-addicted dealer forced him to drink vodka and died near him. Adrian did smoke as well as used firecrackers. But he never drank opium-tea. He burned down the house with firecrackers without being high – he did it in real life by playing with his friends. That he tried smoking with his friends I would not take as seriously as we take it these days. This took place in the late 90s, where smoking was not under such strict restrictions as it is today. Even youth authorities had no reason to intervene: the mother was keeping a flat for a longer period of time and did not move too often, so stability was provided unlike what you can expect from drug-addicted parents. Furthermore, she had a job, which is not shown in the movie and she was successfully, continually employed in different jobs. Back in the day the various social services and youth authorities didn’t have a common network, which is why the incidents like the dead dealer or the firecrackers at at school remained separate and gave different angles instead of showing the complete picture.
Lianna: It’s interesting how the film focuses on a child’s perception about drug addiction and its meaning.
Wolfgang: It was the director’s concept to show his world from this perspective. It took a lot of work and preparation for the camera-department to find the style to tell the story. Through the eyes of the child means also that you get to see no needles and except the spoon at the beginning no classical “drug scene.” The real Adrian did not know what all of this was about, why the adults were at home during the day, why they were awake half of the night and why they were so tired. Adrian thought that being an adult was so exhausting that they had to sleep during the day or at times suddenly fell asleep. But for him it was a wonderful world full of adventures at the river with his parents’ friends. Protected and loved by his mother, for Adrian it was the best of all worlds. Only in his dreams he kept fighting against a demon. At this age Adrian had real nightmares and so the demon is a symbol and, as you said correctly, metaphoric for the fight against addiction.
Lianna: Fireworks seem to be a powerful symbol in the film of both amazement and terror. Is that what they represent in relation to the story?
Wolfgang: I think it is more simple: the little drug community tried to be free, to have fun, to live their life. When you search for the reasons as to why someone takes drugs, especially heroin, you realize that drugs always serve as a very potent band-aid for the soul. The soul which longs for something better and the all too convenient band-aid which makes you forget how low you have sunken. Heroin is no horror-trip, neither does it make you speedy or turn you up – it turns you down and everything is ok, nothing hurts, you are happy – and you will do everything to get back there, to get the next dose. Most of the drug-addicted people do not know how to deal with their emptiness. Helga points it out at the doctor’s: “Do you know how it feels when you get up in the morning and you do not know how to manage the day?” A lot of people ask themselves the same question in the morning, but most of them do not answer with a dose of heroin. Most of us can take the challenge. So the fireworks are just fun, they are beautiful – something that normal people would not do.
Lianna: On that note, the scenes are very picturesque. Where in Austria was The Best of All Worlds shot?
Wolfgang: We shot the movie in Salzburg, in the part of the town, where the story really happened in the late 90s. This part is called Liefering and it shows Salzburg, famous for the International Festspiele, for classical music for the high society, for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and, nowadays, Red Bull, from another perspective. Liefering is a very different Salzburg and Adrian Goiginger’s intention was to show this Salzburg. This different Salzburg, which is also a true Salzburg.
Lianna: Apart from the Wachter family’s epic life-story fighting for sobriety and normalcy, the current heroin epidemic is an inevitable correlation. Was this part of the reason why you feel viewers should see this film? Is it sort of a wake-up call for younger people about the tailspin of the life-altering repercussions of drug addiction?
Wolfgang: First of all it is a tribute to his mother and second it should generate attention towards drug addiction and make it clear that it is an illness, not an adult, deliberated choice. In Europe, the political authorities try to hide, to camouflage the existence of the problem and its growth. The heroin-addicted people are around us and are perfect at hiding their addiction, pretending to live a normal life. But – and this is very important to consider- there are only a few who can manage to live with the addiction escaping social marginalization and being stigmatized. Most drug addicts are on a “substitute plan”, meaning the state has become one of the biggest drug dealers. Society no longer fights the decease, but takes care of the symptoms with a substitute medication. Of healing there is no mention. This has a little to do with how “we” deal with the weak in our society.
Adrian Goiginger was very lucky that he was still so young when his parents got clean – before he could understand what his parents were doing behind closed doors. It was at the age of twelve that he found out about his parents’ addiction and initially reacted with feeling shame and changing his desired career path to banker. At that time the family had already moved to a “better neighborhood” in another part of Salzburg. Adrian is well aware that he was very lucky and that his mother was an exceptionally strong woman.
Still, for him as a boy, it was a wonderful childhood full of adventure and full of love – the very best of all worlds.
Lianna Albrizio
Lianna Albrizio is a seasoned journalist and editor passionate about covering all facets of the arts from film to books, music and food. She loves interviewing people and spreading the word about their amazing work for all to enjoy.
About Winter Film Awards
New York City’s 7th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival runs February 22-March 3 2018. Check out our jam-packed lineup of 93 fantastic films in all genres from 31 countries, including Animation, Drama, Comedy, Thriller, Horror, Documentary and Music Video. Hollywood might ignore women and people of color, but Winter Film Awards celebrates everyone!
Winter Film Awards is an all volunteer, minority- and women-owned registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2011 in New York City by a group of filmmakers and enthusiasts. The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the NY State Council on the Arts.
