This sociocritical film series in 4 parts is a follow-up to the Alpensaga and depicts the economic and cultural development in Austria after the war. Individual films focus on the themes of individualization and the rise of consume culture as well as the political shift of the dominating social democratic forces from a blue-collar party to more market oriented policies.
This two-part drama examines the fate of the generation of Germans which came of age after World War II. The first part, "Arcadia," depicts the generational gap between 1950s teenagers and their parents, while the second part, "Injuries," shows this same group of characters twenty years later as they have grown up to become dysfunctional and suicidal adults. Regarded as the most significant of Michael Haneke’s early works, "Lemmings" contains incipient treatments of many of the themes he would later elaborate on in his theatrical features.