The Ox
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Ox |
| Original title | Oxen |
| Country of production |
Sweden Norway Denmark |
| original language | Swedish |
| Publishing year | 1991 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sven Nykvist |
| script | Sven Nykvist Lasse Summanen |
| production | Jean Doumanian |
| music | Lubos Fiser |
| camera | Sven Nykvist |
| cut | Let Summanen |
| occupation | |
| |
The Ox is a film drama by Sven Nykvist from 1991. It was made in a Swedish-Norwegian-Danish co-production.
action
Sweden in 1867: The population has been starving for two years because of bad harvests. Helge Roos, who fears the starvation of his little daughter Anna and his wife Elfrida, spontaneously kills one of his master Svenning Gustavsson's two oxen. His wife is appalled but helps cut the animal and hide the meat. Shortly afterwards, they both spend Christmas with Svenning and his wife Maria. Maria notices that an ox is missing and Helge helps find it. Since the search remains unsuccessful, Svenning assumes that the animal was stolen, even if he does not understand the reason for it.
In order to preserve the meat, Helge steals salt from a pasture. He is observed by soldier Flyckt, who now suspects that Helge killed the ox. He reports Helge to the vicar, who knows, however, that Flyckt once wanted Helge's wife Elfrida, but she chose Helge. The vicar advises Flyckt not to throw the first stone, as everyone knows about his tense relationship with Helge.
Thanks to the meat of the ox, Helge, Elfrida and Anna get through the winter well, even if they suspect from the suggestions of the vicar and Flyckts that their deed did not go unnoticed. In the spring of 1868 the last meat of the ox is spoiled and the hunger season begins again. When Elfrida begins to beg, Helge goes to the market in Jönköping with the skin of the ox , but on the way meets the vicar, who sees the skin and now knows that Helge actually killed the animal. In the belief that the punishment will not be high, he brings Helge immediately to a court, which, however, it fast-track to 40 strokes of the cane and lifelong prison convicted. The vicar is appalled and promises to work for Helge's release. At the same time, Helge made him promise not to say anything to Elfrida.
It is Flyckt who takes revenge on Helge and tells Elfrida the truth about her husband's whereabouts. In the village people soon also know about Helge's punishment and Svenning, who now recognizes the ox-killer in Helge, is merciless in his rejection of any support for Helge. The vicar tried several times to set up a petition in Helges' favor, but failed because Svenning had not signed. Elfrida has to beg to survive. Once she prostitutes herself with a route worker who gives her food in return. He becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy in 1869. The vicar, who visits Helge in prison, keeps the illegitimate child silent. Helge was not released until 1873, as Svenning had now also signed the petition for his pardon. Helge returns home, where he meets Elfrida and his daughter as well as the illegitimate son. At first he is beside himself, but the vicar admonishes him to reflect. Just as he once killed the ox to survive, Elfrida ultimately only acted to save her life and that of her daughter. Helge finally returns to Elfrida and the two make up. They will both have six more children.
production
The ox goes back to a true story from the time of the famine around 1868, which Sven Nykvist had been told by his father in his childhood. Nykvist wrote the first script version back in the 1970s. In the opening credits he is not explicitly named as a director, but presented as the narrator with the sentence "En sann historia berättad av Sven Nykvist ..." ("A true story, told by Sven Nykvist ..."). While the press often referred to the film as Nykvist's directorial debut, Der Ochse was actually the fifth and final film to be directed by cameraman Nykvist. The shooting took place in Högsby . The costumes created Inger Pehrsson who Filmbauten came from Peter Høimark .
The ox was shown in Swedish cinemas on November 22, 1991. It was a failure in Sweden with critics and with only 11,000 admissions also with audiences. The film was more successful in the United States. In 1992, Der Ochse was also featured in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes International Film Festival . In December 1993 the film was also shown in Germany.
criticism
For the film-dienst , The Ox was an “atmospheric drama in an extremely dark production.” The LA Times called the film a “flawless film of strength and calm” and a “spiritual odyssey, a study on the psychology of guilt”.
Awards
Sven Nykvist was nominated for a Guldbagge in the category Best Cinematography for Der Ochse 1992 . The film received an Academy Award nomination in 1992 for Best Foreign Language Film .
Web links
- The ox in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Ox on stellanonline.com
- ↑ a b Commentary by Svensk filmografi on the film on sfi.se
- ↑ The ox. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Kevin Thomas: "The Ox": A Moral Tale of Simplicity . articles.latimes.com, September 25, 1992.