A notorious mafia bride from the USA seeks refuge in Salzburg – but is caught up with the past again and again: The docudrama “Virginia” tells the incredible and true story of the unscrupulous lady of the same name.
It sounds like a made-up story, for which many scriptwriters would probably be reprimanded: A woman who is as unscrupulous as she is seductive gets promoted to the US mafia, murders her husband and finally meets an Austrian ski world champion, with whom she escapes to Salzburg – just to continue the mafia business there. But that’s exactly what happened in the 1940s, and that’s exactly how the docudrama “Virginia – The Unsolved Riddle of the Salzburg Mafia Bride” tells, which ServusTV is now showing as a German TV premiere.
Virginia Hill, the name of the mafia lady, brings her husband, the legendary Bugsy Siegel, around the corner after a determined mafia rise. During the following vacation she falls in love with ski world champion Hans Hauser, with whom she soon enters into a partnership. And what a thing: Your past is catching up with Hill, before the tax authorities she and her family are piling up in the Salzburger Land. However, she has to continue to finance the extravagant lifestyle through illegal mafia business. Not a good idea: soon all family members are in extreme danger.
Director Sascha Köllnreitner tells the extraordinary story of the couple not only on the basis of new findings and numerous interviews – for example with radio and television presenter Sepp Forcher. He also stages the key scenes of the tragic story in re-enacted episodes with Verena Altenberger (known among other things as the Munich “Polizeiruf 110” actress) as Virginia Hill and Michael Dangl as Hans Hauser. The rousing docudrama is produced by Adrian Goiginger, who made “The Best of All Worlds”, one of the best German-language films of recent years.
Source: teleschau – der mediendienst GmbH –
