Benny, 14, is a teenager whose well-to-do parents are absent most of the time. He fills this void by immersing himself in the world of video. Soon, the pictures he feeds on are overshadowing his sense of reality until Benny loses his mind. He films himself committing an unspeakable act of violence.

In what we may call a transitional work from Michael Haneke, the Austrian provocateur introduces several themes that will prove central to his career: video, surveillance, and the viewer’s own implicit role in the perpetuation of violent imagery. Featuring Funny Games’s Arno Frisch!