Wenn du Angst hast nimmst du dein Herz in den Mund und lächelst

In WENN DU ANGST HAST NIMMST DU DEIN HERZ IN DEN MUND UND LÄCHELST (If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth and Smile, Austria 2025), Marie Luise Lehner follows 12-year-old Anna, who lives with her deaf mother in cramped conditions on a housing estate in Vienna. The move to secondary school changes Anna's life. Her classmates are from a completely different social class, and she begins to feel ashamed of her background and her single mother. Instead of going off to ski for a week, she has to pretend to be ill. The money set aside for the course is used to buy a sofa bed, which will not only allow her mother to pursue a sexual relationship, but also give Anna a bit more privacy. Anna finds an accomplice in her classmate Mara, who asks provocative feminist questions, and also lives alone with her queer father (the non-binary US actor and punk musician Daniel Sea, known from TheL-Word). In her feature film debut, Marie Luise Lehner unconditionally sides with her protagonists, giving them space for introspection and outbursts, allowing them to backtrack and reconcile. Not fitting in allows them to get to know and like themselves. Lehner quite naturally raises the colorful flag of solidarity, making plenty of references to pop culture.

The film premiered in 2025 at the Berlinale Forum and won the Teddy Jury Award and the CICAE Art Cinema Award. Mariya Menner, who plays the role of the mother, was the first deaf actress to appear in an Austrian feature film. Inclusion was a central theme during the shoot.

As part of Arsenal on Location, the director will accompany her film on 2.10 at Filmhaus Nürnberg, on 3.10 at Wolf Kino in Neukölln, Berlin, on 4.10 at fsk Kino in Kreuzberg, Berlin, on 5 & 6.10 at the KIJUKO children and youth film festival in Bremen, on 7.10 at Weitwinkel – Kommunales Kino Singen, on 8.10 at the Zebra-Kino in Konstanz. In Singen and Konstanz, the film will be shown with subtitles for deaf and hearing-impaired people.