Revanche

Colour, 35 mm
Austria, 2007, 121 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

It all sounds pretty familiar: when Alex, a one-time petty thief, decides to rob a provincial bank to get his Ukrainian girlfriend out of a vicious circle of debt and forced prostitution, it’s obvious things are not going to end well. The originality of this story of crime and punishment – with its poised, carefully orchestrated shots that recall the style of Spielmann’s renowned Austrian colleagues Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl – lies not in its subject matter however, but in seductiveness with which his pulsating crime plot is gradually covered over by the monotonous rhythm of natural processes. While the roaring metropolis at first forcibly interconnects the fortunes of several divergent characters, the solitude of the forest and the silent rotation of the seasons manage to grind the edge off even the most painful conflicts. Revanche came away from this year’s Berlin festival with two critics’ awards.

About the director

Götz Spielmann (b. 1961, Vienna) received his first awards for his films in the 1980s while studying at the Vienna Film Academy. After his film The Neighbour (Der Nachbar) won a number prizes at the San Sebastian film festival in 1991, Spielmann went silent for several years. His return to filmmaking met with tremendous success, however – both The Stranger (Die Fremde, 1999), and the controversial, sexually explicit drama Antares (2004) were Austrian nominees for the Oscar. Revanche is the first film that Götz Spielmann has made through his own independent production company, Spielmannfilm.