Werner Herzog declared after seeing this film, “Never have I looked so directly into hell.” Seidl’s work suggests that ‘hell is us’ – that we ourselves create and perpetuate our own misery. Nowhere is this felt more clearly than in this critically acclaimed, darkly humourous study of Austrian pet owners. More disquieting than perverse, film observes the lonely people of Vienna, whose relationships with their four-legged friends replace – or displace – the intimacy and companionship of other human beings.