Brief Synopsis

An American girl, Gina Lee is an alienated and disaffected female who has become disenchanted with hometown strip malls, sleaze bars, and rides along the river-side in her BMW. Impulsively she buys  a discount airline ticket in a shopping mall travel agency. Destination: Vienna, the merry/sinister imperial city on the Danube. Gina Lee quickly slips into discreet, yet decadent dalliances at Cafe Central and at the notorious Hotel Orient, where she becomes embroiled in an intrigue to uncover buried Nazi plunder. Her tragic liaison with rakish Karl Heinz Von Riegl results in her submersion beneath the dark waters of Lake Atter, yet her ultimate fate remains unresolved. This is a black&white film poem infused with metaphor and mood, where the past overtakes the present, and the present overtakes the past.

Brief Synopsis (French)

Une jeune fille américaine, Gina Lee est une femme aliénée et mécontents qui est devenu désabusé avec ville natale strip mall commerciaux, bars sordides et des promenades le long du fleuve du côté de sa BMW. Impulsivement elle ordonne à un billet d'avion discount. Destination: Vienne, joyeux / ville impériale sinistre sur le Danube. Gina Lee se glisse facilement dans discrets, badinages encore décadents au Café Central et au célèbre Hôtel Orient, où elle devient impliqué dans l'intrigue pour découvrir enterré sur le pillage nazi. Sa liaison tragique avec élancé Karlheinz von Riegl dans son ultime submersion sous les eaux sombres du lac Atter.

Medium Synopsis

An American girl, Gina Lee is an alienated and disaffected female who has become disenchanted with the regimen of hometown strip malls, the sleaze bars, and with rides along the river-side in her BMW. Impulsively she buys  a discount airline ticket in a shopping mall travel agency. Destination: Vienna... the merry/sinister imperial city on the Danube. 
Urania is the muse of the heavens and of celestial movements. The film parallels her descent from the heavens to earth, to today’s world, and to the nether regions below. The persona of Urania is portrayed by the character of Gina Lee, who travels fast and who travels alone. 
She quickly slips into discreet, yet decadent dalliances at Cafe Central and at the notorious Hotel Orient, She quickly attracts the attention of Diego Moritz, crafty agent from a powerful cartel of Swiss investors, who approaches her with a proposition. He is looking for a young woman clever enough to fleece the plans of a sunken treasure of gold and platinum ingots off of Karl-Heinz Von Riegl, a notorious habitue of seedy nightspots on the fringe of Vienna’s Bermuda Triangle. 
With little persuasion, Gina Lee becomes embroiled in the plot to uncover Nazi treasure buried at the bottom of Lake Atter. Although Gina Lee ostensibly drowns onscreen in the clear waters of Lake Atter, the door is left open to a sequel. This is a filmic poem infused with metaphor and mood, where the past overtakes the present, and the present overtakes the past.

Medium Synopsis (French) 

Une jeune fille américaine, Gina Lee est une femme aliénée et mécontents qui est devenu désabusé avec ville natale strip mall commerciaux, bars sordides et des promenades le long du fleuve du côté de sa BMW. Impulsivement elle ordonne à un billet d'avion discount. Destination: Vienne, joyeux / ville impériale sinistre sur le Danube. Gina Lee se glisse facilement dans discrets, badinages encore décadents au Café Central et au célèbre Hôtel Orient, où elle devient impliqué dans l'intrigue pour découvrir enterré sur le pillage nazi. Sa liaison tragique avec élancé Karlheinz von Riegl dans son ultime submersion sous les eaux sombres du lac Atter. Il s'agit d'un poème noir et blanc cinématographique infusé avec la métaphore et de l'humeur, où le passé reprend le présent, et le présent rattrape le passé.

Long Synopsis 

An American girl, Gina Lee is an alienated and disaffected female who has become disenchanted with the regimen of hometown strip malls, the sleaze bars, and with rides along the river-side in her BMW convertible. Enthralled with travel posters hanging in the window of a shopping-center travel agency depicting central European towns and landscapes, she impulsively purchases a discount airline ticket. Destination: Vienna... the merry/sinister imperial city on the Danube. 
Urania is the muse of the heavens and of celestial movements. The film parallels her descent from the heavens to earth, to today’s world, and to the nether regions below. The persona of Urania is portrayed by the character of Gina Lee, who travels fast and who travels alone. 
Arriving alone at the Vienna Schwechat airport, Gina Lee encounters bearded, swarthy Mediterranean types crowding around the arrival area in a surly cabal. Her taxi driver assures her that she is in indeed in Vienna, as he drives her directly to Hotel Orient in the dark baroque center of the city.
Seated at one side of the piano player, Gina Lee is dining in the faded elegance of a midnight cafe. Already she is attracting attention. Diego Moritz, crafty agent from a powerful cartel of Swiss investors, approaches her table with a proposition. He is looking for a young woman clever enough to fleece the plans of a sunken treasure of gold and platinum ingots off of a notorious habitue of seedy nightspots on the fringe of Vienna’s Bermuda Triangle. 
With little persuasion, Gina Lee becomes embroiled in the plot to uncover Nazi treasure buried at the bottom of Lake Atter. At an Argentine dance hall on the edge of the city’s 1st district, Moritz introduces her to Graf Karl-Heinz von Riegl who possesses a map that pinpoints the location of the loot. Once he has imbibed enough champagne in the presence of an attractive woman, von Riegl is known to speak freely of the buried contraband that has eluded his grasp for decades. 
Gina Lee moves inexorably through an all-night tryst in the flat of von Riegl. Enamored of her charms, von Riegl invites her to his boathouse on the grounds of the Klimt Villa on Lake Atter. There Gina Lee is unmasked, the plot is revealed by the ruthless von Riegl, and the errant American girl is bound, gagged, and exquisitely tortured. 
Although Gina Lee ostensibly drowns onscreen in the clear waters of Lake Atter, the door is left open to a sequel or a series of installments in the tradition of film pioneer Louis Feulliade, or the early Italian serials of Za-La-Mort. This is a filmic poem infused with metaphor, mood and Stimmung, where the past overtakes the present, and the present overtakes the past.