With the prospect of making a fast buck by transporting a stolen car, Ana and Nicolae, a young Romanian couple, travel by bus from Bucharest to Vienna. But right after they arrive, they are faced with the news that the car is not ready yet. They are stuck in Vienna, penniless. Ana wants to return to Romania, but Nicolae would rather continue traveling westward; after a quarrel, they part ways – and cross paths with locals. Nicolae meets Dana, a thirty-year-old with a zest for life, employed in a travel agency. Ana encounters the department store detective Jan, who is pining for his exgirlfriend Rita. Martha, Jan's apathetic apartment mate, keeps afloat as a human crash test dummy. At some point, Ana and Nicolae meet again under different circumstances.
"Crash tests that use people instead of dummies are less about speed than acceleration. The test persons are accelerated to only ten kilometers per hour, but at quadruple the force of gravity, four Gs. 'Crash Test Dummies' is also about extreme acceleration and low speed. The Romanians Ana and Nicolae reach Vienna with a high level of kinetic energy, are abruptly stopped here, and transmit this energy, moving other people they collide with. How does one live one's life and where does one live one's life; does one do something and stand up, or does one remain sitting? Does one observe or does one intervene; does one move or is one moved? My film is about uncontrolled coincidences and controlled accidents, about the heart of tragedy and the pain of comedy, about love and, not least, cows." Jörg Kalt
Production: Amour Fou Filmproduktion (Vienna), Icon-Film (Cologne)
Screenplay: Jörg Kalt
Cinematographer: Eva Testor
Editor: Emily Artmann
Composer: Bernhard Fleischmann
Cast: Maria Popistasu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Simon Schwarz, Kathrin Resetarits, Viviane Bartsch
Format/screen ratio: 35mm, 1:1.85, Color
Running time: 93 min., 25 frames/sec.
Languages: Romanian, German, English
