The Seventh Continent (1989 film)

The Seventh Continent German Der siebente Kontinent is a 1989 Austrian drama film directed by Michael Haneke. It is Hanekes debut feature film, reportedly inspired by a true story of an Austrian middleclass family that committed suicide. The film chronicles the last years of the European family, which consists of Georg, an engineer his wife Anna, an optician and their young daughter, Eva. They lead routine urban middleclass lives, with hopes of escaping to Australia to start a new life, but suddenly decide to destroy themselves without any apparent reason. The film was selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

The third part, 1989, begins with the family departing from the grandparents home after a visit. The husband then narrates a letter, written the next day, informing them he and his wife have quit their jobs and decided to leave. It plays over clips of them quitting, closing their bank account, telling the clerk they are emigrating to Australia, selling their car, and buying a large variety of cutting tools. He then says it was a very hard decision whether or not to take Eva with them, but they decided to do so after she said she was not afraid of death.The family then eats a luxurious meal, and goes about systematically destroying every possession in the house, but in an automatic and lifeless manner, with barely any speaking as are almost all of their actions in the movie. They rip up all of their money and flush it down the toilet. The only emotion shown is when Georg shatters their large fish tank, and his daughter screams and cries hysterically. Finally, they commit suicide, first Eva, then Anna, and finally Georg. Just before he dies, Georg is shown methodically writing the names, date, and time of death of all three family members on the wall. There is an envelope addressed to Georgs parents taped to the door. ........

Source: Wikipedia