Western
Director: Valeska Grisebach
Year Released: 2017
Rating: 2.5
German workers are in Bulgaria to build a hydroelectric plant but having a tough time of it - one of the construction guys, Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann), journeys over to a small town and hangs out with the locals even though there's a massive language barrier. Grisebach said that she intended it as her take on the American Western genre (and the machismo that goes along with it) and while there is a horse (that gets shot!) and some fighting (there's even a knife!) the spirit is closer to Fassbinder: some bored fellow just walking around drinking and smoking and mixing in places he probably shouldn't (there are arguments but they sort of fade out before anything truly serious happens). The filmmaker's tendency to jump around haphazardly makes it a little disorienting and sometimes frustrating to follow (to mask the lack of content, perhaps?), but the use of non-actors (also see Happy as Lazzaro) and casual pacing gives it a shaggy, lived-in atmosphere.
