War (2017)

Movie
Original title	War (alternative title: foreign enemy)
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	2017
length	93 minutes
Rod
Director	Rick Ostermann
script	Hannah Hollinger
production	Marcos Kantis , ; Louise of Johnston
music	Stefan Will
camera	Leah Striker
cut	Christoph Wermke
occupation
	Ulrich Matthes : Arnold; Barbara Auer : Karen; Samuel Schneider : Chris; Jördis Triebel : Anne; Lili Epply : Sandra; Johannes Gabl : Stranger; Felix von Bredow : Policeman; Thomas Loibl : Veterinarian; Stephan Szász : military pastor Schwab;

War (alternative title: Fremder Feind ) is a German film drama with thriller elements by Rick Ostermann , which premiered on September 8, 2017 at the Venice Film Festival , where the director was nominated for the Venice Horizons Award. Hannah Hollinger's script is based on the novel Krieg by Jochen Rausch .

action

It is winter, and Arnold Stein goes with his dog to his mountain hut, which he recently bought. It belonged to the sculptor Peter Reinhardt, who one day was dead in his bed. Arnold takes refuge in solitude because his son was killed during an operation in Afghanistan. He and his wife Karen were shocked when Chris informed them that he had signed up for the German Armed Forces and that he was leaving Germany two days later for an assignment abroad. Both were against war, and as a pacifist Arnold himself had refused to do military service.

Arnold received emails from his son in Afghanistan in which he reported not only about his first killing. Increasingly he noticed his son's bitterness and his grief over a comrade who stepped on a mine, had both legs amputated and committed suicide after his return flight in Germany. Fear for her son slowly drove Karen into alcoholism. The parents learned through the media that an incident had occurred during the operation. They received certainty when an officer of the German Armed Forces and a pastor stood on the doorstep and brought them the news of Chris' death.

Arnold clears out the rubbish left by a burglar in the hut. He introduces himself to the police in the village as the new owner, but does not file a complaint. When he returns, Arnold finds out that someone has broken into the hut again. When he hears noises upstairs in the house at night, he cannot see anyone.

Arnold looks at the snow-covered mountain landscape from a high seat. Once he receives a visit from his son's ex-girlfriend who wants to ask him for his blessing because she has a new partner. The convinced pacifist finds a rifle in a cupboard in the old carver's workshop and buys a knife. A little later he finds his dog hit by a bolt and seriously injured in front of the house. He finds his car rolling down a slope, and at night someone throws in the windows of the hut. Arnold finally takes up the gun himself and points his rifle at the stranger. In the process, however, Arnold himself was shot and fired back. Arnold drives the injured stranger into town and drops him off in front of the vet's door. He leaves his hut unlocked and drives back to civilization.

Film construction

According to Heike Hupertz of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the film interconnects two narrative levels, sways back and forth and slowly towards a terrible outburst of sudden destructiveness . Arnold is not a strong man like the avengers in films like A man sees red , Hupertz continues.

production

The film is based on the 2013 novel Krieg by Jochen Rausch . Klaus Pokatzky from Deutschlandfunk Kultur says of the book: “The way Jochen Rausch tells this story of a man who fell out of his time is captivating and disturbing. He alternates between the two temporal levels for a long time - when the son is at war and when the father lives bitterly in his mountain hut. The family dog becomes a substitute son; when he is shot by a stranger, the father becomes a warrior, like the son once did, and kills the stranger. ” Hannah Hollinger adapted Rausch's novel for the film .

The soundtrack was composed by Stefan Will . The delivery of the news of death, which is staged as a silent film scene, was supported by an aria from an opera by Massenet.

Filming began on January 4, 2017 in Tyrol , Austria . Another location was Berlin . Shooting ended on April 27, 2017.

The film premiered on September 8, 2017 at the Venice Film Festival , where Ostermann was nominated for the Venice Horizons Award. It was shown at the Zurich Film Festival at the end of September and beginning of October 2017 . War was renamed Fremder Feind by ARD, which showed the film in February 2018 .

reception

Reviews

Ulrich Matthes , here during a break in filming at the Berlinale, plays Arnold Stein in the film

Ulrich Feld from the Frankfurter Neue Presse thinks that the way in which the screenplay by Hannah Hollinger and Rick Ostermann's director brought Rausch's novel onto the screen was consistently cinema-quality, and the disgusting stranger was developing into a metaphor for war itself. He sums up that the film deserves the highest rating for its complexity.

Frank Preuss from Berliner Morgenpost calls the film a quiet drama full of intensity with great actors. Ostermann relies on calm and deceleration and prefers to intensify life's disasters quietly instead of relying on bang effects. With his two brilliant main actors Ulrich Matthes and Barbara Auer , the director achieves an emotional depth that does not tolerate superficiality: “Ulrich Matthes plays this Arnold as a tragic loner, and next to Leah Striker's intoxicating tracking shots , who produces massive winter images, he is the event this movie. The way he changes from a gentle family man to a determined loner exudes credibility at every moment. Toughness and asceticism go well with Matthes' lean, furrowed face with wide-open eyes. ”Heike Hupertz from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung remarks at a moment when Arnold, who he played, as a convinced pacifist, reaches for a rifle that this is the beginning of a creeping one Loss of civilization. Jan Freitag from Tagesspiegel comments on this, but above all Arnold finds the enemy in the form of himself: “And because man is not man to man, as the poet Plautus once wrote, but a wolf, all three rattle this amazing thing with every second Dramas more intertwined until the hermitage becomes a white hell. "

About Stefan Will's music , Hupertz says that it finds very unique tones in the mountain heights: “Strings that scratch the atonality and make the swelling, also incomprehensible violence of this film strangely evident.” Ulrich Feld also notes the acoustics of the Drama set in a snow-covered mountain landscape is perfect when Will's quiet and inconspicuous music is combined with the howl of the snow storm.

Audience ratings

At its TV premiere on February 21, 2018 in Das Erste, the film, which was shown there with the title Fremder Feind , had 4.24 million viewers and achieved market leadership with a rate of 13.1 percent.