The The Actor as a Forger: Notes on Willi Forst’s Film Ich bin Sebastian Ott (1939)

This article aims to critically discuss the oeuvre of Austrian-born film director Willi Forst, with a particular focus on his film Ich bin Sebastian Ott, from 1939, in which Forst also played the major characters, two brothers who are twins. His career flourished in Austria and Germany from the 1930s to the 1950s, and Forst has generally been regarded as one of the greatest figures in the history of German-language cinema. His name has been commonly associated with the musical genre and the so-called Viennese Film, of which Forst has been considered an undisputed master. This connection, which has long been prevalent among film historians, may account for the limited attention afforded to Ich bin Sebastian Ott, which, not falling under the aforementioned genres, has usually been dismissed as of minor importance. To correct this assumption, this article intends to critically examine Ich bin Sebastian Ott, situating the film within the larger framework of Forst’s body of work in the hope of enhancing the understanding of Forst’s oeuvre and highlighting one of his lesser-known films.