Sennentuntschi (film)

Movie
German title	Sennentuntschi
Original title	Sennentuntschi
Country of production	Switzerland , Austria
original language	Swiss German
Publishing year	2010
length	122 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16 ; JMK 16
Rod
Director	Michael Steiner
script	Michael Steiner, ; Michael Sauter , ; Stefanie Japp
production	Simone Häberling, ; Bruno Seemann
music	Adrian Frutiger
camera	Pascal Walder
cut	Ueli Christians
occupation
	Roxane Mesquida : Sennentuntschi; Andrea Zogg : Erwin; Carlos Leal : Martin; Joel Basman : Albert; Nicholas Ofczarek : Sebastian Reusch; Hanspeter Müller-Drossaart : Notter; Ueli Jäggi : Pastor Salis; Peter Jecklin : Dr. Zingg; Daniel Rohr : Bauer Stähli; Rebecca Indermaur : Theres; Birgit C. Krammer : Mother Bibi;

Sennentuntschi is a Swiss film by Michael Steiner . It is based on the alpine legend of the same name and had its premiere at the Zurich Film Festival 2010.

Stylistic devices

The film consists of a frame plot in the present and the main plot, a flashback to the year 1975. The main plot consists of two parallel narrative threads that are brought together towards the end; the second strand begins chronologically towards the end of the first. This takes place mainly on the alp and tells the story of the three men Martin, Erwin and Albert. The second strand, which mainly takes place in the village, is about the village police officer Sebastian Reusch. In the film there is a constant change between the two threads, which leaves the viewer in the dark about the fate of the herdsmen and the origin of the woman until the end of the film.

Main storyline

1975 in the Graubünden Alps : A young clergyman is found hanged in the bell tower. Shortly thereafter, a young woman suddenly appears in the village who is not tolerated by the closed village community and flees into the mountains.

First line: The three lonely herdsmen Martin, Erwin and his son Albert meet them and think they are a herdsman's cunt ; Albert had made such a doll the day before. Then all three of them sink into hallucinations after enjoying absinthe , Martin and Erwin pass on the stranger. She takes revenge by killing the goats in the stable. Later all three herdsmen are killed: Albert dies in a house fire that Erwin starts to kill the woman. Erwin is stabbed to death by the young woman after an argument with Martin and Martin dies shortly afterwards of blood poisoning, which he sustained through a bite from the woman when she resisted the rape.

Second line: A young clergyman is found hanged in the bell tower. A little later a young, mute woman appears surprisingly, who arouses suspicion among the villagers. The parish priest in particular turns the village community against the stranger and describes her as a demon who has been responsible for the deaths for hundreds of years. His theory is supported by an old photo showing a young woman who looks very similar to the stranger and who is connected to the murders of the time. Only police officer Reusch is on the side of the stranger and tries to solve the riddle about their origin. During his research, the mayor's wife loses her unborn child, which is blamed on the stranger. He tries to get the young woman out of the village secretly, but is forcibly prevented by some angry villagers; the accused managed to escape.

The policeman intensifies his investigation and finds out that the mysterious woman was held captive in a cellar dungeon by her father, the parish priest, during her life. The old photo that supposedly depicts the young woman is actually her mother. This fell, pursued by the pastor, into a ravine. Reusch arrests him for murder; the clergyman continues to insist that the girl is a demon.

Finally Reusch finds her in the alpine hut. She shows him dolls that she made from the skins of the three dead men by skinning their bodies, as in the legend. Reusch pursues the fleeing woman, falling into a ravine where Reusch finds the skinned corpses of the three herdsmen. The policeman shoots himself because he feels guilty. The corpses remain undiscovered.

epilogue

The flashback ends with Reusch's suicide, the film ends in the framework plot. The girl who found the skeleton at the beginning of the film discovers the bones of the supposed Sennentuntschi in the gorge. Shortly before the end credits you can see the ghost of dead Albert looking into the gorge.

Manufacturing history

The first idea of a remake of the alpine legend came up in 2003. In 2005 the Zürcher Filmstiftung donated a grant to the Swiss film studio C-Films . This commissioned the counterproduction of the Swiss director Michael Steiner with the project. Steiner and his then wife Stefanie Japp wrote a first version of the script. Producer Peter-Christian Fueter initially envisaged his son Tobias as a director. When this refused, however, Steiner should also take over the direction. C-Films planned to release the film as a German-Swiss co-production and was looking for German donors.

When the search for German financiers had failed, C-Films left the project in 2007. Steiner's counterproduction acquired the full rights to the film for CHF 250,000.

In 2008 the Austrian television producer John Lueftner participated in the project. The Federal Office of Culture and the Zurich Film Foundation also secured funding totaling 1.7 million francs. The budget was set at 5.5 million francs. The Swiss television pledged to 300,000 francs and thus reduced the subsidy by half. The Austrian Film Institute and ORF also participated in the production. Steiner also brought the Swiss film producer Hans G. Syz on board . Warner Bros. acquired the DVD exploitation rights, Walt Disney Switzerland the cinema rights. Possibly also participated Ruth Waldburger through its French Avventura Films SA in the production.

The shooting started in autumn 2008, despite an unsecured budget. It took place in Uri's Schächental , in the Bergell villages of Soglio , Bondo GR and Stampa , in Tyrol and in the film studios in Uster .

The counterproduction ran into liquidity problems; numerous crew members were waiting for their wages. Hans G. Syz and possibly Avventura Films SA withdrew from production. 2010 took over Constantin Film of the Swiss media entrepreneur Bernhard Burgener the Kontraproduktion AG and invested CHF 3 million. In addition, Steiner was signed by Constantin and committed to producing a film for the Swiss offshoot every year until 2013. The film opened in Swiss cinemas on October 14, 2010 and had around 150,000 visitors by the end of the year, making it the most successful Swiss film of 2010 in Switzerland. The film was subsequently dubbed Standard German.

Awards

In 2011 the film “Sennentuntschi” received the Swiss film pearl in the category “Best Feature Film” on the occasion of the Locarno Film Festival from art-tv.ch .