No Mercy (No Mercy)

Isa Willinger

“The truth is, women make harsher films,” cult director Kira Muratova once told young filmmaker Isa Willinger. Since then, Isa has wondered whether this could really be true. In No Mercy, she sets out to meet some of the great women and nonbinary directors of our time, as well as the past. Filmmakers who 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?

Germany, Austria 2025, '105

DIRECTOR: Isa Willinger

SCENARIO: Isa Willinger

CAMERA: Bernadette Paaßen, Siri Klug, Doro Götz

MONTAGE: Lena Hatebur, Niki Mossböck

MUSIC: Brii Bauer, Jescha Oszilat

PRODUCERS: Ira Tondowski, Alex Tondowski, Sabine Gruber, Peter Drössler

PRODUCTION: Tondowski Films,  FlairFilm

FESTIVALS & AWARDS:

Hamburg FF
DOC NYC
Viennale
Rio de Janeiro FF
DocPoint
Odesa IFF

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.