Alexander El Dib

An unreservedly matter-of-fact look at two young women who consider prostitution an adventure until reality catches up with them.

A leather jacket and eyes blackened with make-up. Tommy is a musician with heart, having long outlived his idol, Kurt Cobain. Like him, though, he is also self-destructive and is drawn increasingly into a musical mania and alcohol excess. For the dream of a record contract, promised to the winner of local band contest, he will go to any lengths. The driven individual stops for no one – be it others or himself.

Maja could hardly be happier. She loves her husband Konrad and their two children more than anything and things are also going well professionally, having recently taken up a promising position as a molecular biologist in a renowned clinic after completing her doctorate. But one day, a motorcycle accident involving her husband has serious consequences. After a minor operation on his leg went without a hitch, Konrad's condition deteriorates rapidly a little later. It soon transpires that he has been infected with dangerous germs in hospital. As the hospital treating him is Maja's new workplace, her boss Professor Adler, who would prefer to sweep the matter under the carpet, is not at all happy for her to investigate on her own. And she soon discovers some shocking facts.

Does luck have a use by date? Both thought that at eighty they have experienced everything until, like a bolt of lightening, Rosa and Bruno come together and immediately fall head over heels. There are two obstacles to their happiness though: Bruno’s marriage, which has long been routine, and Rosa’s illness; she has cancer and not long left to live. Despite the difficult circumstances, the two decide to breakaway – Bruno from his relationship and Rosa from her retirement home. Against the advice of carers, doctors and relatives, the pair moves into a new apartment together. ANFANG 80 shows with a great deal of unequivocal humour how insensitively and sometimes desperately overburdened society reacts to love among the elderly.

8 x 45 is an Austrian television series.