Western [DVD]

Western (2017) by Valeska Gisebach is a true pearl of cinema.The film uses the conventions of the Western genre of the classic American cinema in a vey genius way.A German company sends a group of construction workers to an isolated location in Bulgaria near the Greek border to build a hydroelectric dam.Near the construction site is a small picturesque village inhabited by proud Bulgarians who love their village, and are devotees of their customs and old traditions.The contact between the group of German workers and the inhabitants of the village is inevitable, as is inevitable the ethnic and cultural shock between them, with the exception of the protagonist of the film Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann).With this story, briefly summarized here, Valeska Gisebach transposes to the Balkan region of Europe the typical landscape of a Western American film, placing the group of German workers in the position of modernizers that bring a basic infrastructure to a inhospitable region of Europe, the villagers are themselves placed in the position of Indians, mere recipients of one basic equipment of civilization, and the vast and rugged landscapes of Bulgaria replace the XIX century west parte of United States, when that part of the United States was being colonized and modernized.Of course the film uses Western American cinema codes, but Valeska Gisebach surprises in the way she conceptualizes it, using a method that makes this Western a very singular movie; her film has a photography with a very beautiful natural light, non-diegetic music, the actors are all non-professional, and the absence of a common language, the Germans only speak German and the Bulgarians only speak Bulgarian, with one exception which does not disturb the general scheme of the difficulty of communication between the two groups.The only thing less well achieved, in my opinion, is in the way the scenes and sequences of the film were assembled; here the film lacks some articulation between the scenes and the sequences, making it a little slant, discontinuous and somewhat elliptical.

I’ve looked at a great run of movies lately. WESTERN is wonderful, a German film, so strong in visuality and mood, sharply observed, an amazingly taciturn performance from Meinhard Neumann, beautifully underplayed,, unmelodramatic and brilliantly restrained. Great film acting.

In a word disappointing.

Fantastic film for art house moviegoers.

No English subtitles on this DVD. Sent it to my friend in Germany.

German writer-director Valeska Grisebach’s 2017 film is a slow, meandering, multi-layered drama – forming an, at times, haunting psychological study of Meinhard Neumann’s construction worker and loner, Meinhard, and one without a clear (or certainly more conventional) resolution. Perhaps the most obvious route to the film’s multi-layered nature stems from its title. As Meinhard and his fellow German workers embark on the construction of a hydro-electric plant in a remote Bulgarian village, the cultural and language barriers between the ‘immigrants’ and locals soon become apparent, leading to a degree of conflict, west vs. east (calling to mind – well, mine at least! – the dreaded Brexit). By the same token, Grisebach is also alluding to the titular film genre, as Meinhard, a loner with a 'mythical’ past, becomes obsessed with a local white horse (and even seems to possess a bandy-legged walk à la John Wayne!). Stylistically, Grisebach’s film is a meandering study of culture, character and place – the rugged hills of the local countryside evocatively captured by Bernhard Keller’s naturalistic cinematography, whilst Meinhard displays an atypically (for his group) open-minded cultural attitude, looking to befriend the locals and adopt some of the local customs.Acting-wise, the film is consistently impressive, being highly naturalistic (almost documentary-like, at times) and featuring predominantly first-time actors. Remarkably, one such screen novice is Neumann, whose mostly easy-going turn is certainly the focus and the stand-out, engaging in some key (philosophical) scenes with Syuleyman Alilov Letifov’s senior local man, Adrian, whilst Reinhardt Wetrek’s arrogant boss and source of conflict with Meinhard, Vincent, also impresses. Vincent and his team of male workers (periodically eying up some of the local young women) also drive one of the film’s other key themes, that of the habitual need to demonstrate masculinity in this type of environment. Both Meinhard and Vincent are tempted by Veneta Frangova’s local woman, Veneta, albeit I found that Meinhard and Veneta’s coupling did not entirely convince narratively. Indeed, some of the character motivations here are a little difficult to fathom, even if Grisebach’s tale is never less than intriguing. In the end, the film’s other themes of culture clash, Western genre allusion, emasculation, etc., are perhaps overshadowed by what emerges as an existential (or identity) crisis for Meinhard, perhaps best summed up by the film’s concluding line, from Adrian to Grisebach’s main protagonist, 'What are you searching for here?’. We’ve been given plenty of clues, but probably not a definitive answer.