Double Happiness, 74 Min., 2014, DCP, (Subtitles available: german, english, chinese)
–> visit also facebook
What happens when an Austrian Alpine village acquires a Chinese twin—complete with its church tower, market square, cobblestones, and mountain scenery?
Double Happiness takes its title from the Chinese character 囍, a traditional symbol of marital union and shared joy. Here, the “happy couple” is formed by two Hallstatts: the historic Austrian village and its full-scale architectural double, built as a luxury real-estate development near Shenzhen. Their unlikely marriage produces a playful reflection on copying and creativity, authenticity and performance, and the dreams that architecture is asked to fulfill.
Moving between the two Hallstatts, Ella Raidel combines exquisitely composed documentary images with interviews, miniature models, staged encounters, television fragments, and karaoke-like musical interludes. A young Chinese woman in a dirndl sings to the moon; architects contemplate the future of Chinese cities; and an idealized European past reappears as a newly constructed Chinese reality.
Rather than treating the replica as merely “fake,” the film asks a more intriguing question: can a copy produce its own meanings, memories, and desires? At once humorous, intellectually provocative, and visually seductive, Double Happiness reveals globalization as a hall of mirrors in which China and Europe encounter not only each other, but also their own fantasies.