Julia doesn’t believe in God. She believes in sun, mountains, animals, trees and snow. How it should be for a little Swiss girl. Their village lies in a valley carved deep into the rock.
Surrounded by mountains pointing to the sky. Populated by bearded alpine farmers who mow, cut wood, hay with crooked backs and let steaming pig intestines slide into the snow during the slaughter.
[Vorstellungen: 15.2., 17.30 Uhr Cubix 9, 16.2., 21 Uhr (Cinemaxx 6 u. 7), 18.2. (Berlinale Palast), 19.2., 15 Uhr (Urania)]
Julia’s mother Anna (Michèle Brand) loves Marco (Simon Wisler), who works as a farmhand for the alpine farmer Alois. As an innkeeper’s daughter, postwoman and single mother, she is an integral part of the community played by amateurs. The taciturn square skull Marco is under observation as a newcomer from the lowlands. “He can grab it” is the benevolent verdict on the power bolt, which treats cows just as lovingly as Anna and Julia.
Until the end of love, which tragically got out of control from the wedding due to Marco’s illness, it is not quite plausible what the graceful Anna sees and is looking for in the bull-necked block. The good heart, the pure soul? “Drii Winter” doesn’t reveal it.
The Swiss filmmaker Michael Wolf has recommended himself as a creator of quiet social dramas with the drama “Marija”, which premiered in the Locarno competition. “Drii Winter” follows, also in the formal concentration, which corresponds to life reduced to work, the village pub and driving on serpentine roads.
Rather than loading up the ever-seasonally stunning landscape in Cinemascope, Koch fills the square of the Academy format with peasant work, boulders, Anna’s questioning looks, and Marco’s skull, which always seems too heavy for its wearer.
A choral society in uniform serves as a structuring element in the sluggish flow of the mountain time, commenting on the events with associative folk songs in the manner of a Greek choir. This brings a universal dimension to the drama.
