This film is part of our series THE FUTURE WE LIVE IN, showing in March and April at De Uitkijk.
Experimental, feminist film by Austrian avant-garde artist and filmmaker Valie Export.
Anna, a young Viennese photographer, becomes increasingly convinced that the Hyksos, a group of hostile extraterrestrial beings, are responsible for the growing decay and violence around her. However, it is not only the outside world that is unraveling—her inner world is also fracturing: Anna and her lover struggle in vain to hold on to their crumbling relationship. Director and writer Valie Export visualizes this psychological fragmentation through an experimental visual style marked by stark contrasts: black-and-white images alternate with color, long cinematic takes are disrupted by violent montages, and still photographs blend seamlessly with video.
Invisible Adversaries is not a traditional alien invasion film but a complex portrait of a woman’s struggle in a world plagued by hostile, omnipresent forces—whether extraterrestrial or born from society itself. This unique avant-garde masterpiece interweaves themes of misogyny, patriarchy, and the shadow of Nazism into a gripping feminist psychological narrative.