top of page
NO MERCY
by Isa Willinger
SYNOPSIS
"The truth is, women make the harsher films", cult director Kira Muratova once told young filmmaker Isa Willinger at the start of her career. Since then, Isa has wondered whether this could really be true, given that women tend to be associated with “empathetic" or "sensitive". In No Mercy, Isa Willinger sets out to meet some of the great women and nonbinary directors of our time, as well as the past. Filmmakers who indeed often tell stories of harsh realities, of humiliation and revenge. What do they have to say about violent characters, the depiction of rape, about trauma, power issues and ultimately the so-called female gaze?
No Mercy takes the audience on a journey into the exhilarating non-conformist filmmaking of women. Yet, film is also a mirror for real social issues.
So Isa’s question goes deeper: Where do we stand when it comes to gender and power – both on-screen and off?
DETAILS
105 mins
2025
Germany, Austria
English, French, German, Russian, Persian, Dutch
CREDITS
Written & Directed by Isa Willinger
Produced by Alex Tondowski, Ira Tondowski, Sabine Gruber, Peter Drössler
Cinematography: Bernadette Paaßen, Siri Klug, Doro Götz
Editing: Lena Hatebur BFS, Niki Mossböck
Music: Brii Bauer, Jeschka Oszilat
Original sound: Ines Vorreiter, Simone Mo Pischl, Nora Czamler, Andreas Hamza, Barnaby Hall, Hannes Marget, Annastasya Maharani
BIOGRAPHY
DIRECTOR - ISA WILLINGER
Isa Willinger is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her documentary feature Hi, AI – Love Stories from the Future was nominated for the German Film Award for Best Documentary and it won the Max Ophüls Award. In 2020, Isa was awarded the SISTAR film prize for outstanding female directors. Her follow-up film Plastic Fantastic on an environmental crisis also had a theatrical release in Germany. It received the German Documentary Film Award/Audience Award, the Graine d’Or at FIFES in Cannes, the Ocean Alliance Award and others as it was screened at numerous film festivals around the globe. Isa studied documentary film directing at the University of Television and Film Munich and she holds an MA in Slavic studies, American studies and sociology. In 2013, she published the result of her academic research about Ukrainian director Kira Muratova in the book Kira Muratova – Kino und Subversion.
SELECT FESTIVALS
DOCNYC 2025〡FILMFEST HAMBURG 2025〡FESTIVAL DO RIO 2025〡VIENNALE 2025〡FESTIVAL DEI POPOLI 2025〡ODESA FILM FESTIVAL 2025
PRESS
"Eye-opening"
— Cineuropa
bottom of page