Sargnagel - Der Film (2021)

The Viennese poet, cartoonist and call center expert Stefanie Sargnagel, who is world-famous on Facebook, Instagram and among Bachmann Prize judges, has gained cult status with bestsellers like FITNESS. In Germany, too, she already fills large halls with her reading performances. At the same time, she's been the target of shitstorms due to her polemics against the New Right. A canny producer (Thomas Gratzer) and a director (Michael Ostrowski), who was quickly brought on board, see enough material for a successful biopic: SARGNAGEL - "the voice of a generation!" This could also be the longed-for star vehicle for public's darling Hilde Dalik, who is already dreaming of the next career boost as the "Austrian Bridget Jones": "Put on weight like Renee Zellweger and then receive the Austrian Film Award...". So the first research shoots begin in Sargnagel's cosmos between call centers, municipal buildings, the Rabenhof Theater and artists' cafés like the "Weidinger" or the "Schmauswaberl". Inevitably, at some point the question arises: Shouldn't Sargnagel herself embody the leading role "authentically", "so that this also becomes a really great story", "very feminist"? SARGNAGEL, the documedy, becomes a series of creeping decay and very abrupt crashes. Dreamy flights of fancy, clogged drains, addiction problems and balancing acts on the brink of burnout: while the media speak highly about her, Stefanie Sargnagel lives up to her name. Unapologetically, she drives everyone who works with her to the brink of collapse. Interviews with renowned Sargnagel fans like Jan Böhmermann meet conversations with a publisher who would never give Sargnagel an advance again, conversations with her sceptical mother and many others. Could it be that everything is falling apart or is it just part of a production with, by and about Stefanie Sargnagel?