Der Mann aus dem Eis

Germany serves up a European version of The Revenant from the Ötztal Alps 5300 years back, in the Neolithic era, telling the story of a man whose mummy is one of the oldest and most famous in the world. It is a period historical revenge survival drama where the main character goes on a hunt and in the meantime his entire tribe including his family is brutally murdered, burned and the women raped (a very gritty and powerful scene by the way). He has lost almost everything and the only option is to seek out the culprits and execute them in cruel retribution. The beautiful cold scenery, the unusual depiction of prehistoric times, the original Germanic dialect which the viewer does not understand and no subtitles are available and probably never will be, but they are not needed for the story, as the makers point out at the beginning of the film. The film does have a slower pace, but if you put yourself in the mindset of the time, you are in for a very unusual experience with a rough beginning and ending. 70% (09.10.2018)

I sincerely take off my imaginary hat. I would never think that somebody in Germany will decide to film a prehistoric drama with everything it entails. And that’s including a local Germanic dialect. I thought that only Mel Gibson is to blame for these precisely made crazy trips in the movie industry. You can’t, therefore, understand almost a word in the movie, but the story is so simple that you are able to understand it without a problem. The story is about a simple revenge and in 90 minutes full of beautiful shots of the prehistoric era, you’ll tell yourself that you’ll probably never experience such amazing filmmaking again. (02.10.2018)