Architecture on Film: In the Basement (18*)

Iconoclastic provocateur Ulrich Seidl descends into the basements of Austria, finding dens of dark desire manifesting very different iterations of domestic bliss. The subconscious gains a room of its own; a cosy place where acts both suburban and shocking, mundane and highly explicit, take place in the very private foundations of the home.

From fitness to fascism, launderettes to sex dungeons, Seidl both finds and fabricates a world of routine pleasures most normally kept in the shadows, excavating the ‘safe place’ that lies under both the kitchen and the psyche.

Released just a few years following the shocking revelations of the Joseph Fritzl case, the film’s presentation of a nation hiding all manner of secrets in their basements – from butt plugs to bars, living dolls to Third Reich drinking dens – contains many unsettling moments that some may find uncomfortable.