Basic training turns to love in ‘Eismayer’
Sometimes, the tenderest of feelings emerge in the most unexpected of places. Consider the true-life story of Vice Lieutenant Charles Eismayer, a veteran training instructor in the Austrian Armed Forces whose reputation for toughness became a legend that struck terror into the hearts of young Austrians headed for their compulsory National Service; married, macho, and merciless, he shocked both his military colleagues and the public alike when he became one of the first officers in the Austrian military to come out as gay after falling in love with a recruit.
Once seen as a paragon of hyper-masculinity, responsible for traumatizing a generation of fledgling soldiers with his brutal training tactics, he’s now widely lauded as a queer pioneer who helped to fuel a shift toward acceptance and diversity in the Austrian military.
This little-known (in the U.S., anyway) chapter in queer history is the basis for “Eismayer,” the feature debut of Austrian filmmaker David Wagner that premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival to wide acclaim from critics; after a successful tour of the festival circuit during which it garnered numerous prizes and was frequently cited as an audience favorite, it makes its American debut with a limited theatrical release on Oct.
6 before dropping on digital/DVD on Oct. 10. Wagner’s somewhat fictionalized treatment of the story — which he wrote in film school after hearing the legend during his own stint in the National Service — begins by introducing its title figure (Gerhard Liebmann) through the perceptions of a group of new recruits who, familiar with his reputation, attempt (and fail) to avoid training under his tyrannical command.
