A group of German construction workers set out for a foreign construction site in the Bulgarian province. The strange country awakens adventure feelings among the men. At the same time, they are confronted with their prejudices and mistrust. For two of the men, a nearby village becomes the stage for a competition for the recognition and favor of the village.
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
[9]
A "Western" in much the same sense that Claire Denis' Beau Travail was an adaptation of "Billy Budd," Valeska Grisebach's masterful new film does include certain ingredients. We have a horse, which serves several very pivotal roles in the plot. We have someone we might reasonably designate a "black hat" bad guy who represents the unchecked forces of capital and civilization of his day (i.e., globalization). And we have a protagonist who, though he has a name, does not necessarily have a country or a home. By the end, he is just as lost and isolated as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers or, for that matter, Galoup in Beau Travail.
If I keep bringing up Denis' film, it's because… more
Western
TIFF 2017 pick #19
Reason for pick - director Valeska Grisebach
Western is like being dropped into a forest in a foreign land in your sleep. You wake up without any bearings, and overhear conversations in languages you don’t completely understand. You are confused and disorientated for some time, then, over time, things gradually become familiar. You begin to understand, and you slowly begin to assimilate; then you slowly begin to love.
There is nothing more, and in that lies its brilliance.
Tiff 2017 - Film #20
Western.
A man from away moseys into town and stays long enough to leave his scent.
He lands in a bar where they will not serve him a drink.
He plays nice with the townspeople
He proves his worth and the townfolk love him.
He helps a man do something or other and becomes his best friend, and gets a local girl.
Then his job is done and he saunters out of town as coolly as he came in.
Up Music, end of film. Everyone feels good.
Valeska Grisebach sets her 'Western' in Bulgaria.
The Germans are there to divert the water, to give the local Bulgarian community access to water without having to choose… more
Poor Germans. The only way Eastern Europeans respect them is if they show up in an armored column.
Colonialism in the age of decommodified economy. When the structures one live in and by are predicted on rootless, the desire for belonging increases. The title is a very deliberate conceptual tease, the themes, a few signifiers and some of the form, suggest a western of sorts (the group dynamic between workers made me think of this joining Comolli’s La Cecilia in the very weird group of movies by leftist Europeans who appropriate Hawks for their own means). It is major step up in ambition for Grisebach next to her fine earlier features and she backs it up with more focused dramatic chops. This is a very smart film, very aware about how from the heart of the empire ethnic… more
Every action has a reaction; every cause has its effect; every country has its culture and each village its customs. Any outsider coming into a place unfamiliar to them has two options: adapt or ignore. Either way, Western shows us that an outsider can enter into a foreign place and try their best to adjust to the culture they have guilelessly infringed upon, but they are bound to contravene the natural order of things due to history, differentiating experiences and barriers in language and practice. It also shows us the inverse, and what can happen when malicious parties interrupt and fail to respect the home of others. A multi-layered piece of realism, the core of the film seems to be… more
The western has long been a genre of displacement, of people who carry their pasts with them and not much else. As such, Grisebach does not have to work hard to update the format to the present of global capitalism, where laborers seem to drift between each other's countries, always finding jobs in lands where the people must leave because there are no jobs. The arrival of German workers in Bulgaria generates tension over communication barriers and the boorish behavior on both sides, yet the film subtly suggests that the tensions that inflame were present even without the intrusion, and that the Germans and Bulgarians ultimately take out their frustrations on each other. As such, Meinhard's ability to forge connections with locals arguably creates more conflict than it ameliorates, bringing out subtle moments of grace, intimacy and hostility in everyone. As true a western as any of the classics, and just as tragic.
52 films by women 2018: 32/52.
You couldn't, realistically, say the white working class have been out of the spotlight recently. As someone who is white, and who is working class (but also left-wing and queer, so Not The Right Type), I get a sinking feeling every time I see the dread phrase used at the start of an article. But how many people have seen us? How many people have shown us? How many pieces of art or journalism about working-class people are interested in them as something more than just a human shield, a way for middle-class writers to push the guilt of their own horrible, failed politics onto some imaginary hive-mind of bigots? The day before I… more
Hugely improved on second viewing—probably the largest first-to-second viewing leap in a while. For one thing, it certainly helped that this screening was in the more relaxed festival mode of VIFF as opposed to the groggy stupor of Cannes. For another, seeing (and loving) Grisebach's previous film, Longing, made me more aware of (and thus more receptive to) her precise editing rhythms and control of narrative. That latter point, really, was the main difference: the recognition of Grisebach's audacious approach to drama within the framework of the Western. The entire film is a high-wire act of dramatic de-emphasis, a borderline-perverse, but remarkably considered withholding of traditional payoff. ("Wanting something is one thing. Getting it is something else.") The pointed truncation… more
Western é um filme que desafia os limites do gênero que homenageia, apresentando um drama íntimo e introspectivo sob a estrutura de um faroeste contemporâneo. A história acompanha um grupo de trabalhadores alemães que se estabelecem em uma vila remota na Bulgária para construir uma usina hidrelétrica. O filme aborda as tensões culturais e sociais que surgem quando estrangeiros tentam interagir com os habitantes locais, enquanto explora questões mais profundas de masculinidade, identidade e pertencimento.
Grisebach adota um ritmo deliberadamente lento, permitindo que os personagens e suas dinâmicas complexas sejam desenvolvidos de forma orgânica. A câmera é muitas vezes estática, quase documental, capturando momentos de silêncio que dizem tanto quanto os diálogos. A paisagem búlgara, com suas montanhas e campos… more
holy fuuuuuu,
that. third. act.
guys bein dudes
