Workman Arts

How To Be Normal & The Oddness Of The Other World

Florian Pochlatko | 2025 | Austria | Fiction | 102 minutes | German and English | Canadian Premiere

KEYWORDS: Social stigma, identity, self-discovery

Freshly released from a psychiatric hospital, 26-year-old Pia moves back to her parents’ house on the outskirts of Vienna – only to discover that she is not the only one whose life has fallen apart. Her parents, Elfie and Klaus, are also finding it hard to keep up with a world that is constantly changing. Who gets to decide what is normal? How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World is an exploration of identity, family and self-discovery, and a young woman’s search for equilibrium and meaning in a world that is spiraling out of control.

Brothers Ziad and Moody spend their last moments in the family home they’re forced to leave due to a scheduled demolition as part of the city’s development plans. To pass the time while they move the furniture outside, Moody turns on the TV, which soon blares news of Palestinian home demolitions in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, casting a somber shadow over their already melancholic last day.

Mahmoud Ibrahim, a 24 year old Egyptian filmmaker. He was among the first class of students to graduate from the Higher Institute of Cinema in Alexandria in 2023. He is interested in the relationship between the individual and the city, and the intersection of collective and personal archives. His debut short film “The last day” participated in Berlinale International Film Festival 75 in the Forum Expanded. Mahmoud has worked as a director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and sound designer. He co-founded HandyCam Films, an independent production company that seeks to explore new art spaces and create alternative production methods, away from centralism.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Florian Pochlatko is an Austrian writer, director, and editor. He studied Experimental Media Art before directing at the Film Academy Vienna under Michael Haneke and pursued Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in Diedrich Diederichsen‘s class. His acclaimed short film Erdbeerland (2012) received numerous awards and has been a fixture in Austrian cinemas ever since. After working as a visual identity designer for musicians and curating for Cultural institutions, he now returns to his roots with his first narrative feature.