Edition 24: 1–9 August, 2025

NATIONAL

As If Biting Iron

Austria, Kosovo
2019 — 7' / Color

1

Synopsis

“What if women could move a house?” In “As If Biting Iron” (2019), Rizaj uses the medium of film to challenge this very question as we witness the walls of a brutalist building, situated in the forests of Kosovo, being moved by the forces of over 100 anonymous women. Pushing against the deadweight of the concrete, the burden of oppression literally and figuratively comes undone.

Official Trailer

Directors' Biography

Stephanie Rizaj, born 1989 is a visual artist and video maker. She lives and works in Brussels and Vienna, studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam (NL) and University of Applied Arts Vienna (AT). Her artistic roots lie both in the Architecture as well as in Fashion Design. As If Biting Iron is Stephanie Rizaj’s first film.

Directors

Stephanie Rizaj

Producers

Stephanie Rizaj

Cinematographers

Adrien Bourguignon

Marvin Kanas

Editors

Marvin Kanas

Stephanie Rizaj

Sound

Conny Frischauf