Arbeitersaga (1990)

The four-part miniseries ARBEITERSAGA (Workers' Saga) chronicles postwar Austria through the eyes of its working people. Helmut Berger plays Karl Blaha, a character who over time works a number of different jobs, thus connecting the episodes over a 40 year period. “Neorealism Austrian style.“ (Der Standard) Episode 1: "Die Verlockung" (The Temptation) June 1961: the young union organizer and metal worker Rudi Blaha (Levin Kress) dreams not of class struggle, but of Brigitte Bardot. His character represents the shift of the workers movement away from the worker rights and towards social contracts with the government as well as burgeoning consumer culture. Set in post WWII Austria, director Dieter Berner and author Peter Turrini pick up where their hit series ALPENSAGA left off. As its predecessor, ARBEITERSAGA is a panorama of Austrian society and focuses here on urban life in the capital city, Vienna. The depiction of the workplace and the influence of unions, bureaucracy and migration is more pronounced than in ALPENSAGA. Also in contrast to ALPENSAGA is that each episode of ARBEITERSAGA is made in a unique style corresponding to the topics dealt with and to the period in which each episode is set.