Hinterland

It has taken some time, but Peter Perg leads a group of soldiers back home to Vienna after the end of Great War. They had been brutalized while imprisoned in Russia. Perg finds the old social order in chaos. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had collapsed. He left his beloved wife and daughter behind to fight for the Emperor, but they are now gone. His aristocratic home is empty. He is forced to return to his police work when one of his soldiers gets ritualistically murdered. To many, he is the prime suspect.

I really like the style. It's half German silent film, half Se7en, half comic book. I would add some more rain, but it's got a cool look. I like diving into this time and place. I like the general premise and the lead character's suffering. I would probably just kill off the family. He would move heaven and earth to find them. He wouldn't care about anything else including the murder of his men. Finally, I have an issue with the ending. It has a big coincidence that really bugs me. Aside from those two issues, I really like this movie.

First off the visuals are remarkable. Yellowish colour tone used for daytime scenes adds a comic book like character and has a gloomy nature at the same time. This goldy skies and the gloomy buzzing streets of the post-war Vienna is shown as a beast waiting to swallow the defeated soul of Perg. More than just a murder mystery Hinterland succeed in becoming a commentary on the society that any soldier is forced to encounter and the unjust treatments in society. Chilling and graphic imagery adding some edge to the movie. Great performances by the cast with a lot of solid personalities. A movie with a freshness to it that's easily make it worth watching.

Worth seeing historical thriller about the time shortly after the First World War! The world is out of joint in "HITLERs WIEN / Hitler's Vienna" (see the book of the same name by Brigitte Hamann). ACADEMY AWARD winner Stefan RUZOWITZKY ( DIE FÄLSCHER ) has made a brilliant film whose special style is reminiscent of the great Eric Rohmer film "La Anglaise et le Duc / Die Lady und der Herzog / The Lady and the Duke".

Murathan MUSLU plays a war returnee who returns to Vienna almost broken. A crazy series of murders soon begins, leading inexorably into the bowels of post-war VIENNA. Liv Lisa FRIES (BABYLON BERLIN), Aaron FRIESZ, EUROPEAN FILM AWARD nominee Margarethe TIESEL (PARADIES: LIEBE and DER GOLDENE HANDSCHUH) and the new global star Matthias SCHWEIGHÖFER impress in other roles. You won't see such a blast from German-speaking countries. It's a shame that only 10,000 tickets were sold at the German box office.

I have seen this movie in a Sneak Preview.

What I really liked was the mask and the sound. Well done! Also Murathan Muslu was convincing in his role.

Although there are a couple of reason why I'm giving it only 6 stars.

The very special Art Style with a lot of tilted shots and all the inclined houses was just too much and sometimes distracting. Some people may like that, but I don't.

Another reason is story related. I won't spoil anything, but there are at least 3 annoyingly unrealistic scenes (in terms of reactions in specific situations).

Yes the background can be annoying - I have to point that out. Although I think I am pointing out the obvious. Something everyone can see - no pun intended. But something that hopefully won't bug you too much. Not sure if there was another (cheaper solution) to this, but the movie does concentrate on the ... story and the characters it has. Which is a good thing and should be the thing you should look forward to the most.

That said, the actors really deliver here. Even someone like Matthias Schweighöfer or anyone else who has a small (insignificant or not) role or a bigger one. This is a murder mystery ... one where our hero seems to have something hidden himself. Or something that haunts him from the past ... and not just the fact that he was in a war. The ghosts that haunt him from that are big too of course.

There is enough to sink your teeth in and relish in where the story takes us. You can't be squeamish though, because there are some scenes that can be called borderline and quite violent. But it is the nature of the movie and our main bad guy ... tough case to crack. A Sherlock Holmes would be a nice thing to have - but maybe the former police man is able to find the culprit too ... you have to watch to see! And also if his journey is ... well let's call it complete.