[Film] The Dark Valley (Das finstere Tal)

22 May 2016

“The Dark Valley (Das finstere Tal)”---European Union Film Festival

Release Year: 2014

Country: Austria

Director: Andreas Prochaska

Cast: Sam Riley, Paula Beer

Location I watched: Golden Village Suntec

Story from the programme booklet:

A remote high mountain valley towards the end of the 19^th century. A stranger, Greider, arrives at a clannish village community and asks if he can take shelter for the winter. He knows the villagers’ gloomy secret. A mysterious series of deaths ensues.

A wanderer arrives at a small village in a valley between deep mountains, saves a young girl in trouble by the evil master of the village and leaves again. This should be a familiar Cowboy Western plot style. But when this plot is set in the extremely cold climate in the Alps together with vengeance against the blood ties of a clan, the film becomes something different. An isolated village, brutal murders and tragedies caused by secret blood relations…the film is like an Alps version of Detective KINDAICHI Kosuke series (***) with gorgeous gun action scenes. It is an enjoyable film. (26 May 2016)

Mr. Greider (Sam Riley)-a photographer/gunman

***Detective KINDAICHI Kosuke is one of the most famous fictional detectives in the history of Japanese mystery. The author of the original novel series is YOKOMIZO Seishi. The series have been adapted for films many times. Director ICHIKAWA Kon’s works (“The Inugami Family (Inugami-ke no Ichizoku)”, “The Devil’s Ballad (Akuma no Temari-uta)” and so on) are the most famous and acclaimed.