| Opening Film | Diagonale 2026 |

ROSE
BY MARKUS SCHLEINZER
(AT/DE 2026, 93 min, b/w)

Diagonale is pleased to announce that the Festival of Austrian Film will open with the Austrian premier of Markus Schleinzer’s feature Rose in the presence of the filmmaker along with members of the cast and crew!!

Rose © Schubert / ROW Pictures / Walker+Worm Film / Gerald Kerkletz

“There was more freedom in pants, and it’s just a piece of fabric. So I went for the pants.”

In the midst of the Thirty Years’ War, a soldier appears in a Protestant village, claiming to be the heir to an abandoned manor. The mysterious stranger dispels the villagers’ initial suspicion through his courage and energy. Only the omniscient narrator knows the soldier’s true identity: Rose is a woman living as a man, taking on and shedding a variety of roles – eccentric, bear slayer, landowner, husband, father – until a seemingly trivial moment, namely, a bee sting, sets off a chain reaction with far-reaching consequences.

Actor Sandra Hüller impressively embodies the eponymous Rose, using little more than her gaze, posture, and gait to lend an extraordinary presence in this portrait of a woman that oscillates between fiction and historical accuracy.

Based on historical accounts of women who passed themselves off as men in the 17th century in order to work and lead independent lives, Markus Schleinzer paints a portrait of a “female person” who transcends the boundaries of her gender and thus writes her own biography. Rose asks essential questions about freedom and identity – and also about who has the power to tell a story.

A Powerful Parable About the Present Day

“When choosing an opening film, we always aim to send a message: a message about the special relationship with the present that is inherent in the film. Rose touched us deeply because it speaks from the past about freedoms that must be fought for, ideally through alliances. And about freedoms that can be quickly lost again if they are not protected. In Markus Schleinzer’s magnificent film, a ‘female person’ assumes the clothing and identity of a man, thereby gaining access to opportunities in a 17th-century Protestant village that were previously denied to her. Through small gestures and precise glances, the film achieves remarkable emotional intensity. It raises the question of what it means to live a life in constant risk of deceit. Against this backdrop, a haunting parable of the present unfolds in which patriarchal power structures and their violence are made visible, while at the same time offering glimpses of fragile, utopian forms of coexistence. Schleinzer’s direction remains crystal clear and minimalist, carried by an outstanding performance by Sandra Hüller, who conveys the inner tensions of this woman with great precision. Rose’s inner conflicts and the violence of social ostracism have had a lasting impact on us. It is a disturbing film that shows how quickly deviation becomes suspect – and how relentlessly power protects itself.” — Dominik Kamalzadeh & Claudia Slanar | Festivalleitung