Cinema
Raffl
Christian Berger · 1984
Synopsis
Tyrol, winter 1809-1810. The uprising against the French and the Bavarians has been crushed, and a reward of fifteen hundred florins is promised for its leader, Andreas Hofer. Franz Raffl, a poor mountain peasant riddled with debts and mocked by all, lives apart from the village with his sick wife and an adopted daughter. By chance, he discovers Hofer's hiding place, and finds himself holding in his hands the fugitive's fate and his own.
Context
The first feature film by its author, who operated the camera himself and wrote the screenplay with Markus Heltschl; Lois Weinberger plays Raffl, Dietmar Schönherr the priest. The austere direction owes much to Robert Bresson. The film was shown at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in May 1984, then at the Moscow festival in 1985, and it was after seeing it that Michael Haneke wanted to work with its author.
Who it is for
A mountain film without epic, which requires knowing who Andreas Hofer was in order to gauge what it overturns.
Prizes and reception
Max Ophüls Prize; a first film regarded as a renewal of post-war Austrian cinema, far from false heroism.
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