Ulrike OTTINGER [english] > Films > The Blood Countess (in preparation)

THE BLOOD COUNTESS (in preparation)

Tilda Swinton and Isabelle Huppert

Isabelle Huppert and Tilda Swinton meeting the producers Heino Deckert

and Kurt Mayer in Cannes 2009 (photo: Sandro Kopp)

Impatiently awaiting the arrival of her devoted maid Hermine, the countess Erzsébeth Báthory, also known as La Comtesse Sanglante, a tigress in human disguise, ascends into the open daylight. At breathtaking speed, the two women race through a Vienna of ghoulish beauty.

Their entourage: Báthorys nephew Bubi, a vegetarian vampire who refuses to follow family traditions, his therapist, two wacky vampirologists, some members of the duelling fraternity "Vampiria", an all-female music ensemble, and many more. "Wiener Blut", Viennese blodd is shed by the buckets while the hearts of the present Habsburgians and Viennese beat high. This is a cracked journey to the roots of a myth that has lost nothing of its appeal: to the Vampyre Empire! Naturally, the showdown takes place at Vienna´s "Prater" - during a midnight supper on that fair´s famous Ferris wheel.