Peacock

At the International Critics Week, which runs parallel to the Venice film festival, the directorial debut of Austrian filmmaker Bernhard Wenger beguiled audiences, who had exhausted themselves of sombre competition titles and slow arthouse pieces. Not to be confused with German ensemble piece The Peacock of the previous year (which just serves as a prime example of the dire wasteland of German-speaking comedies the following feature broke out from), Peacock tells the story of Matthias, a dapper young man, who works at a rent-a-friend agency in Vienna. The problem is: he has become so good at adapting to whatever version of himself his clients need him to be, that somewhere along the way he has lost sight of who he truly is.

Albrecht Schuch is the actor directors generally seek out when they look for someone to make a sophisticated literary adaptation (Berlin Alexanderplatz, Fabian – Going to the Dogs, All Quiet on the Western Front) spring to life, as he seamlessly intertwines emotion and intellect. As such, the character of Matthias, whose most defining characteristic is his lack thereof, seems like a thankless job for him to take on. Nevertheless, his undeniable presence in front of a camera works in favour of stirring curiosity for this impalpable human being and the bizarre situations he finds himself in. There is a perplexing truthfulness to Matthias’s search for truthfulness.

The humour of Peacock doesn’t aim for big, collective laughs from a full house – the sort where the attempt looks absolutely miserable and reflects badly on the film when it fails to elicit the desired response. Instead, the script proves Wenger’s knack for pinpointing certain absurdities we recognise from our daily lives, which is why the subtlety of the jokes work well and create authentic amusement: a chuckle, instead of a guffaw, but all the more sincere for it.

More than a steadfast and confident first feature, Peacock offers a welcome surprise by rejecting pre-defined associations between nationality and genre. Leaning into the satirical approach Scandinavian cinema is sooner known for than German or Austrian film, but using the latter’s cultural components, Wenger accomplishes a fresh and and droll take on the ubiquitous quest of finding oneself.

Selina Sondermann

Read more reviews from our London Film Festival coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the London Film Festival website here.