PÖFF 2016: The Eremites

Albert grew up on an isolated mountain farm in the middle of nowhere in the Alps. Although he’s already in his 30ies, his omnipresent mother Marianne still pulls the strings in his life. Not voluntarily and only because of his mother’s pressure, Albert goes to live in the nearby valley to make his living in a marble quarry. Marianne wants to protect him from the poor and lonesome life on the mountain and is even willing to denounce their bonds to the tradition of the centuries-old farm. Like an abandoned animal that keeps coming back to its territory, the introverted farmer’s son keeps sneaking back to the mountain as often as possible. When his father dies accidently while repairing the roof, the mother decides to hide his death from Albert and the outside world.

Echoing the inner world of its protagonists, director Ronny Trocker juxtaposes the majesty of the mountain with the visuals of the vast mine in his first feature that premiered in the Venice Orizzonti section this fall.

Albert is played by Austrian Thesp Andreas Lust (with fine actors Orsi Tóth and Ingrid Burkhard in other important roles) – as always a great choice for a character that expresses but a splinter of his inner complicated world. Yet staying an Eremite is not Albert’s choice.

This is a film of subtle nuance, great visuals and few, brusquely uttered words – with characters that simply exist in hard day-by-day labour rather than fine conversation.

Christoph Gröner