Based on a true story, Haneke’s first theatrical feature is a disturbing portrait of familial disintegration which he describes as a depiction of his native Austria’s ‘progressive emotional glaciation’.  Set over a three year period, it documents how the mundane day to day routines of a middle class family alienate them from the world and each other until, suddenly and shockingly, their lives self-destruct. Addressing themes that would inform much of his later work – the breakdown of society, violence and the media – ‘The Seventh Continent’ is both intelligent and masterfully composed.