REVANCHE (Austrian) (2009)

‘Whose fault is life doesn’t go your ways?’

An Oscar nominee for the best foreign language film in 2009, Revanche (means Revenge) is dark, disturbing and brooding drama absorbed with elements of crime, accident, guilt and revenge. It’s a film where uncontrolled fate and chance plays pivotal role changing all protagonists’ lives.

Tamara is Ukrainian illegally living call girl in Germany and she’s under the debt of thirty thousand dollars and her bouncer boyfriend Alex needs eighty thousand euros to be a partner of his friend’s bar at Ibiza. She’s too special for local brothel and so her pimp offered her big money and a flat to sell her beauty and curves to higher clients who don’t want to tarnish their public image by visiting local brothel. She refused his offer but he goes on keep insisting. On the other hand Alex made a plan to rob the bank and escape to Spain. But when man is making a plan, fate also starts playing its part too. Alex escapes to his lone grandpa’s countryside home but the vigilante is in the neighborhood. There’s also a subplot of a childless couple and the cop. It would be great spoiler for the film, if I say anything further about the well conceived tense plot and gripping treatment.

Director Gotz Spielmann shifted the dark, seedy and fast paced city life with lots of skin show and boiling tension into an absolutely slow and different environment of countryside within an half an hour and its here where films becomes different from Hollywood crime potboilers. The world of contrast between lives of city and countryside which is highlighted here in almost positive open ending of the film. As Alex’s grandpa says in one of his line- ‘In a city you end up as arrogant or scoundrel.’ Guilt and remorse find their ways only when one is quiet and calm with self and that’s possible at countryside and not in hectic money ruled life of city. Guilt is rooted there already where Alex is incessantly cutting woods like a freak, and the cop keeps jogging and regretting on a bench near the pond. Both for the same woman.

Along with almost flawless direction and performances, the film is worthy to watch for its brilliant cinematography too.

Ratings-9/10