Few people would have thought that a panel discussion about Love, Faith and Hope would be such an entertaining event. On Monday night however, the audience in the packed auditorium of WestLicht learned that this is indeed possible. For the first time, film maker Ulrich Seidl presented his book Liebe, Glaube, Hoffnung (Love, Faith, Hope), which accompanies his acclaimed film-triology Paradies (Paradise), to the Austrian public. Seidl had invited two illustrous guests to join him on the podium: Cultural critic and philosopher Herbert Lachmayer, director of Da Ponte Research Center in Vienna and Claus Philipp, co-editor of the book and head of Vienna Stadtkino. They chatted wittily about the book and the film and discussed the impact and power of Seidl’s visual language. Afterwards, the host of the evening, Peter Coeln, owner of WestLicht, invited the guests, among them actress Maria Hofstätter and Wolfgang Thaler, director of photography of Seidl’s films, to join him for a glass of wine and to visit the current Roger Ballen exhibition, still on show at WestLicht until 28 April.

Pictures: Dieter Nagl