Revanche (film)
| Revanche | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Götz Spielmann |
| Produced by | Heinz Stussak Mathias Forberg Götz Spielmann Sandra Bohle |
| Written by | Götz Spielmann |
| Starring | Johannes Krisch Irina Potapenko Ursula Strauss Hanno Pöschl |
| Cinematography | Martin Gschlacht |
| Edited by | Karina Ressler |
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Production
company |
Prisma Films
Spielmann Film |
| Distributed by | Filmladen |
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Release date
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Running time
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122 minutes |
| Country | Austria |
| Language |
German Russian Austro-Bavarian |
| Box office | $192,451 (US) |
Revanche is a 2008 Austrian thriller film written and directed by Götz Spielmann. It centers on the ill-fated love story between a Viennese ex-con and a Ukrainian prostitute who get involved in a bank robbery.
The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2008. It received critical acclaim and won a number of awards, and was nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Alex works in Vienna for Konecny, owner of the brothel "Cinderella", where Tamara, a Ukrainian prostitute, also works. Konecny has a possessive attitude towards Tamara, not realizing that she and Alex are in a secret relationship and want to leave Vienna as soon as possible to begin a new life together. While visiting his grandfather Hausner, who lives on a smallholding in the country, Alex decides to rob the local bank. Hausner has a neighbour, Susanne, who lives nearby, and visits him regularly. She is married to Robert, a policeman. They keenly want a child, but although Susanne was pregnant, she lost the baby and is unable to conceive a second time because of Robert's fertility problems. Susanne would like to adopt, but Robert refuses to accept that there is any difficulty in his fathering children. Consequently, their relationship is suffering.
Tamara has a bad feeling about Alex's planned bank robbery, and insists on waiting for him in the getaway car while Alex, armed and masked, holds up the bank. By chance, Robert is on patrol and walks past the car at the moment Alex is returning to it. Alex threatens him with his gun and drives off. Robert shoots at the tires as it speeds away but instead hits Tamara fatally. In despair, Alex abandons the car and Tamara's body in the wood and makes his way to Hausner's rustic barn, where he hides out. His loss makes him very withdrawn and distraught; he scarcely speaks, and spends hours every day aggressively chopping wood for the winter. Hausner begins playing the accordion a great deal with encouragement by Susanne, who visits often, adding to Alex's growing unease.
Robert and Susanne's relationship becomes further strained because Robert's unintentional killing of Tamara is causing him great mental anguish. He blames himself for it and can find no way to discuss or deal with the guilt. He carries Tamara's photo round with him, and looks at it constantly. His colleagues refuse to take his grief seriously, and try to encourage him by telling him that he has only killed a bank robber's accomplice, and that in the forthcoming official inquiry into the death he will have nothing to worry about.
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Wikipedia