the dark valley

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Movie
Original title the dark valley
Country of production Austria , Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2014
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Andreas Prochaska
script Andreas Prochaska,
Martin Ambrosch
production Helmut Grasser
music Matthias Weber
camera Thomas Kiennast
cut Daniel Prochaska
occupation

Das sinstere Tal is an Austrian-German feature film from 2014 based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Willmann . The genre mix of Western and Heimatfilm premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2014 and had its German theatrical release on February 13, 2014.

At the Austrian Film Prize 2015 , the film was nominated in ten categories, eight of which were awarded.

action

At the end of the 19th century, a young man named Greider came to a remote mountain village in the Alps with two horses and luggage. He introduces himself as a photographer and asks the residents to stay for a winter. His arrival met with disapproval, and his wish was granted only after prepayment. The village is strictly controlled by the six sons of the patriarchal farmer Brenner. Greider is brought to a secluded farm where Luzi lives with her mother. The two women have lived alone with their father and son since the accidental death. Greider is received benevolently in the house and adequately cared for. He hides his packaged rifle in the stable. He is taciturn, just says that he grew up in America and learned German from his mother. Luzi is about to marry her lover, Lukas, but is obviously looking forward to the event with horror. One day Greider accompanies Luzi to go shopping in the village. In the inn, which also serves as a shop, there is a collision with the Brenner sons when Greider does not want to drink the schnapps on offer . Otto Brenner then knocks him down and pours the rest of the schnapps bottle into his mouth. In the following weeks, Greider took landscape photos with his camera in the valley and, at Luzi's request, took a portrait photo of her with Lukas.

The snow comes, and one after the other two of Brenner's sons, Edi and Rudolf, die while working in the woods and hunting in apparent accidents. Greider knows that suspicion will fall on him because there were hoof nails in the eyes of the dead Rudolf Brenner. Nails like those that Greider had previously bought from the landlords. That is why he retires to a forest hut. The wedding takes place at Brenner's request despite the deaths. At this point, the tradition enforced by the old Brenner reveals itself, according to which in the sense of an "extended" Ius primae noctis every bride must be sexually compliant until she becomes pregnant. This rule was first broken by - as it turns out - by Greider's mother and her husband, who at that time freed his wife from the Brenner farm and hid with her in the cellar of the landlord. However, they were betrayed by the landlords for money and caught by the Brenners, the man thereupon abused and crucified; the mother ultimately escaped and was never seen again. The bride's parents' yard was burned down. Greider came to the valley to take revenge on the Brenner farmer and his family as well as all accomplices for the atrocities perpetrated on his mother and her husband. At the wedding, the village pastor addresses the role of Joseph in the New Testament in his sermon , whose wife Mary became pregnant with the baby Jesus without Joseph's intervention . Josef had recognized that a more important authority than he had brought about the pregnancy of his wife. In the same way, the inhabitants of the village should emulate Joseph's godly actions. After the wedding congregation has moved out, Greider enters the village church and tells the pastor that he wants to go to confession . He confesses to having killed the two Brenner sons and shows the pastor a picture of his mother. He recognizes you and now also knows who Greider is. The American shoots the pastor in the confessional as an accomplice, he held the bride while her groom was being tortured.

At the gloomy wedding party in the pub, the bride and groom are pushed to dance before Otto Brenner takes the right to dance with the bride. When Luis Brenner asked Otto to leave Luzi to him, a scuffle broke out between the brothers. Lukas, who intervenes to protect Luzi, is knocked down by Otto Brenner, then the brothers leave the house with Luzi to take them to their father. This complies and does not offer any resistance. On the snow-covered path, Greider stands in the way of Brenner's sons and forces Luzi's release. He challenges all of Brenner's sons to a duel the next day and brings Luzi to their in-laws. Lukas' father and mother are rather skeptical because they fear the Brenner family will retaliate. Greider replies that he will come to the Brenners instead. At night, however, he first goes to the innkeepers to punish them for their betrayal. He forces the landlady to "eat" coins in retaliation for her greed at the time when she revealed the whereabouts of Greider's mother and her husband, as the Brenners offered her more money.

The Brenner sons come to Greider's hiding place at dawn, which they find using the tracks in the snow, and surprise those who are still sleeping in the hut. When they open fire, Greider can take refuge under the floor in time. It has an ultra-modern for its time Winchester - repeating rifle - Model Winchester '73 - with which he can shoot faster than the burner with its barrel weapons . Greider also proves to be an excellent marksman and extremely unscrupulous when he shoots Otto, who is wounded and screaming in pain, a second time in order to lure his brothers out of the reserve. This also succeeds and Greider kills the four brothers, most recently Hans Brenner, who already believes himself to be the sure winner, but is then surprised when Greider reloads at lightning speed and shoots him too. After this argument, Greider moves on to the Brenner Hof to end his campaign of revenge. Once there, he is suddenly attacked by the blacksmith , who is loyal to the Brenner farmer. It comes to a duel, in the course of which Greider is badly wounded with a hook. However, he is saved by Luzi's groom Lukas, who shoots the blacksmith in the back at the crucial moment.

Last, Greider seeks out the old and weak Brenner farmer in his bedroom. The aged patriarch shows himself tired and resigned to fate and does not defend himself against Greider, who finally, after a short hesitation, shoots him in tears. Whether Greider is really a biological son of Brenner remains open; However, Brenner calls his sons "your brothers" to him.

The village population faces the liberation from the cruel rule of the Brenner family in a mixed manner, as there is a Brenner descendant in each family. Greider is nursed back to health by Luzi's family, while Lukas and his father keep watch in front of the house to prevent the village population from taking revenge on the feverish Greider. Spring comes particularly early this year, and Greider eventually rides away after winter is over and is never seen in the village again. Luzie is pregnant at this point and proud that her husband was actively involved in the liberation.

main actor

Differences between book and film

Greider is a painter in the book and a photographer in the film. The film shortens the plot of the book and speeds up the process. The dark valley is cut off from the outside world every winter, Greider arrives before winter and can only leave it again after winter, accordingly the plot in the book spans many weeks. In the book, Greider visits the village every day or roams the valley to (as a painter) make his sketches. The very closed village population gradually gets used to him, which is why neither the villagers nor the Brenner sons suspect him when the first deaths occur - everyone believes it is accidents. And so he does not retreat to a remote forest hut or is provided by the Brenner sons. Greider's intervention when Luzi is to be brought to Brenner after their wedding comes as a surprise to everyone. Greider wins the fight with the blacksmith single-handedly in the book, in the film Lukas comes to his aid.

criticism

"The film adaptation seems overstylized in some elements, but still paints the atmospherically dense picture of a microcosm in which terror and violence reign."

- Filmdienst No. 4/2014, p. 38.

“Director Andreas Prochaska brings the western to South Tyrol by combining the traditional American genre with elements of an alpine homeland drama. A grandiose, atmospheric, violent Western-Psycho-Thriller-Drama. "

- Bavarian radio

“'Das sinstere Tal' is a massive snowy western world, filmed in the icy Schnalstal in South Tyrol. […] Prochaska manages to keep the tension high, with a feeling for rhythm that is seldom seen in German-language genre films. The pace is not fast, there is almost something supported, as if heavy snow is dragging the way of things. "

- The daily mirror

“The camera, equipment and excellent sound technology bring winter to the screen here with breathtaking immediacy. From the echoing creaking of the branches, the smacking sinking in of the steps or the dry echo of a shot, the film builds up a tension that goes far beyond the act of revenge. As a viewer, contrary to the current of the plot, in the end one downright regrets that it is spring again. "

- epd film

Awards

Web links

Commons : The Dark Valley  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Dark Valley . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Age rating for Das sinstere Tal . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ a b f.at/stories/2691926/ orf.at - "Das sinstere Tal" clears the film price  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Article of January 28, 2015, accessed on January 29, 2015.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / oesterreich.oramens  
  4. ↑ a b Austrian Film Award 2015 . Accessed January 29, 2015.
  5. ↑ The dark valley. Filmdienst , accessed on December 28, 2015 (short review).
  6. ^ Walli Müller: The dark valley. Bayerischer Rundfunk , February 12, 2014, archived from the original on February 24, 2014 ; Retrieved February 18, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Sebastian Handke: Alpenwestern without mercy. Der Tagesspiegel , February 11, 2014, accessed on February 18, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Katharina Grimnitz: The dark valley. epd film , February 18, 2014, accessed April 16, 2015 .
  9. ^ The winners of the German Film Prize 2014 ( Memento from May 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 80 kB), accessed on March 25, 2019.
  10. ↑ "The Dark Valley" in the Oscar race. Stars24, September 3, 2014.