"Märzengrund" or "Above the World" (completely different title meaning compared to the original) is an Austrian German-language film from 2022 now, so really a new and fresh film as this one had its wide release in August 2022 and it happened in Austria a week earlier than in Germany, so this shows you where the film's roots are and also where it is set and the origins of the people who made this movie. You also see it from the language. I think Germans can understand most of it if they concentrate, but they included subtitles in my showing and it was not a bad idea at all. I somehow like listening to the Austrian dialect. Not gonna lie. Anyway, back to the basics: The film runs for 110 minutes, so not a short film as it is closer to the two-hour mark than it is to the 1.5 hour mark and the director and co-writer is Adrian Goiginger. He was just 30 when he shot this film I think, is now slightly over, so definitely a young rising filmmaker and especially cool that he also worked on the screenplay indeed. I have a feeling we will see international movies from him too at some point, films in the English language with popular cast members from America. I am not sure if they will feel as good and raw as this film here though, probably not because that would mean they will be huge achievements too. Goiginger's co-writer is Felix Mitterer and he is as experienced as it gets as he was already part of the industry in the 1970s, so more than a decade before Goiginger was even born. Impressive. Goiginger by the way, despite his age, has already been part of many projects, not only short films and his experience is certainly visible with the quality of the outcome here. For one of his previous films, he also cast the stunning Verena Altenberger and she is on board here too playing one of the biggest female characters. I am not sure why she has first credit on imdb though. This cannot be right.
This is the story of Elias and he is played by two actors, so you can basically split the film in half and certainly say that this is two films in one. You already get a snippet of the second half at the very start when we see an old man in a hospital bed, but then the action focuses on the protagonist's younger years, his family situation, his first love and how he finds out where he really belongs even if this means a big punishment for those closest to him. Said love interest is played by Altenberger by the way, but I also want to mention Iris Unterberger it was I think, namely the actress who plays the main character's sister in the first half. You could actually guess that the woman's voice you hear in the opening scene inside the hospital would be the one from Moid (Altenberger), but it turns out it is not her and she is gone more quickly from the main character's life than you would have thought. This is what distance can do to a relationship, no matter how close it is. The voice was his sister's in fact, the only female character who is pretty much with Elias from beginning to end. Or the only character in total because his friend in the mountains he does not know from the very beginning. By the way, I am a bit surprised Elias was already a popular name back then many decades ago when the film is set, but maybe his parents were just ahead of their time when it came to that. Would have been the first and only time they were ahead of their time really with all you see from them later. But there the film was also doing really great with the screenplay with how the parents are depicted. It felt very authentic. They act like monsters to some extent, but still they have good intentions and basically they are just moving on with the ideals they learnt from their parents, from society. The mother may have really shocking moments with the daughter, but she defends the boy and even brings him books although she knows that her man will not approve, but she is also really mad and evil when he is there swimming with Moid in the water for example and there we see his father be a bit more calm and relaxed and ready to convince his wife that he can be with Moid if he wants to, even if she is divorced. As long as he takes over the farm from his father, he is happy with anything. This was obviously not meant to be.
The father's decision to not send him to a hospital where he would be treated with electric shocks led Elias to a totally new road, one he would pursue his entire life, namely stay up there in the mountains away from civilization. To the very day that he is an old man and his illness is so bad that he is taken to a hospital. He still won't go without a fight when the paramedics and his sister arrive. I must also talk a bit about the Elias actors here. The young one is Jakob Mader and his inclusion may be a bit of a surprise for a key character because, according to imdb, he only had one credit before that and that was from 2014, but it maybe helped that it was another mountain-themed, another Alps-themed movie back then that he appeared in and I think he played his role well. Of course, you cannot expect him to be on par with Johannes Krisch. This actor has been the lead in Oscar-nominated stuff and is one of the finest actors Austria has and he is growing more and more on me for sure. He is always good and always interesting to watch, even if he "only" plays a character who lies in a slightly wild river and enjoys the water surrounding him as you see on this film's poster. Krisch does so much with this role really. I also always love his physicality. But of course the screenplay is also doing him huge favors. This film was written so well. I will talk about some of the most interesting inclusions here, some of the most memorable scenes from my perspective. The first, absolutely non-chronologically, would be the ending for me, namely when the main character commits suicide as he knows that he will never get back up there again and now his mother is gone too, so his promise is fulfilled and nothing holds him in this world. This could have been a depressing moment, but the much more depressing moment was when he finds out from a nurse or doctor that he cannot return to the mountains and that they lied to him about that. The actual ending is even more salvation to some extent as we see his spirit leave the hospital and head up to where he belongs. Where he can be really free.
Pay attention also to his quote on one occasion how death does not exist from his perspective. This was also an interesting parallel to other scenes before that when he sees deceased people. This includes his father who also took his own life really not long after his son telling him that he will not return to the valley and that he rejects the farm to live the life he wants. The father does not say a word in this very brief scene, which is also memorable. Then we see Moid there with him whose character was still young and she looks the way Elias remembered her. But Elias himself is old already at that point and he was not old when the spirit of his father came to him, so we know his father's death happened very early. As for Moid, the scene there was so realistically heartbreaking honestly in terms of what could have been. We find out she left, found another man and had children, but the words Elias (Krisch) said to her about how he loved her so deeply were incredibly touching and it's tough for your eyes not to get wet that moment. After Moid, women were never again a factor in Elias' life. The moment when we find out from Elias' sister that she has not responded to his letter was also quite sad. We do not know to what extent maybe Elias' parents had to do with it down there in the valley. Maybe they had, maybe they hadn't. The metaphor linked to Moid's chamois eyes was also sweet. Speaking of eyes or even wet eyes, the main character's eyes actually got wet when he was there in the mountains, still a young man at that point, watching a male deer and this was also an utterly fascinating moment. I can't call it a scene with how brief it was.
The most memorable scene in terms of animals was surely the one with the bird at the hospital, how he helps the bird to get free again. He himself could not get free again because of his health, but this shows that even when he is down there with civilization where he does not belong, his focus is fully on nature and animals and it will always be this way. He also does not become friends with any of the other residents, but his only real friend (apart from his sister) stays the man he met up there in the mountains, the one with whom he sang together when they met early on, which was one of the lightest moments the film had to offer. This man, even if Elias was also not always nice to him, came to visit Elias there at the hospital and you could see with their joking about being old that they had a special connection. I mean it made sense. He was pretty much almost the only human that Elias was in touch with for many decades. His only link to civilization and that was enough for him. I must also mention the nurse again or doctor whoever it was that took care of Elias and also told him the truth then that he will never be able to return up to the mountains. The actress was not just pretty, but also the character was likable with how she tried her best to comfort him and how she was honest of course. She could have left him with his illusion, but you could understand easily that she was fond of him and said something like he is a really valuable person and adds so much to the residence, even if he is not really capable of accepting the compliment and just tells her how long it will be until he can leave the place. So yeah, as you see from my rating, I think this film is (close to) a masterpiece. I was not sure I would watch it, but thanks to seeing Krisch in the cast I finally did and I don't regret it one bit. My new favorite from 2022 and it made me want to head to the mountains the moment I left the theater. A must-see.
This is the story of Elias and he is played by two actors, so you can basically split the film in half and certainly say that this is two films in one. You already get a snippet of the second half at the very start when we see an old man in a hospital bed, but then the action focuses on the protagonist's younger years, his family situation, his first love and how he finds out where he really belongs even if this means a big punishment for those closest to him. Said love interest is played by Altenberger by the way, but I also want to mention Iris Unterberger it was I think, namely the actress who plays the main character's sister in the first half. You could actually guess that the woman's voice you hear in the opening scene inside the hospital would be the one from Moid (Altenberger), but it turns out it is not her and she is gone more quickly from the main character's life than you would have thought. This is what distance can do to a relationship, no matter how close it is. The voice was his sister's in fact, the only female character who is pretty much with Elias from beginning to end. Or the only character in total because his friend in the mountains he does not know from the very beginning. By the way, I am a bit surprised Elias was already a popular name back then many decades ago when the film is set, but maybe his parents were just ahead of their time when it came to that. Would have been the first and only time they were ahead of their time really with all you see from them later. But there the film was also doing really great with the screenplay with how the parents are depicted. It felt very authentic. They act like monsters to some extent, but still they have good intentions and basically they are just moving on with the ideals they learnt from their parents, from society. The mother may have really shocking moments with the daughter, but she defends the boy and even brings him books although she knows that her man will not approve, but she is also really mad and evil when he is there swimming with Moid in the water for example and there we see his father be a bit more calm and relaxed and ready to convince his wife that he can be with Moid if he wants to, even if she is divorced. As long as he takes over the farm from his father, he is happy with anything. This was obviously not meant to be.
The father's decision to not send him to a hospital where he would be treated with electric shocks led Elias to a totally new road, one he would pursue his entire life, namely stay up there in the mountains away from civilization. To the very day that he is an old man and his illness is so bad that he is taken to a hospital. He still won't go without a fight when the paramedics and his sister arrive. I must also talk a bit about the Elias actors here. The young one is Jakob Mader and his inclusion may be a bit of a surprise for a key character because, according to imdb, he only had one credit before that and that was from 2014, but it maybe helped that it was another mountain-themed, another Alps-themed movie back then that he appeared in and I think he played his role well. Of course, you cannot expect him to be on par with Johannes Krisch. This actor has been the lead in Oscar-nominated stuff and is one of the finest actors Austria has and he is growing more and more on me for sure. He is always good and always interesting to watch, even if he "only" plays a character who lies in a slightly wild river and enjoys the water surrounding him as you see on this film's poster. Krisch does so much with this role really. I also always love his physicality. But of course the screenplay is also doing him huge favors. This film was written so well. I will talk about some of the most interesting inclusions here, some of the most memorable scenes from my perspective. The first, absolutely non-chronologically, would be the ending for me, namely when the main character commits suicide as he knows that he will never get back up there again and now his mother is gone too, so his promise is fulfilled and nothing holds him in this world. This could have been a depressing moment, but the much more depressing moment was when he finds out from a nurse or doctor that he cannot return to the mountains and that they lied to him about that. The actual ending is even more salvation to some extent as we see his spirit leave the hospital and head up to where he belongs. Where he can be really free.
Pay attention also to his quote on one occasion how death does not exist from his perspective. This was also an interesting parallel to other scenes before that when he sees deceased people. This includes his father who also took his own life really not long after his son telling him that he will not return to the valley and that he rejects the farm to live the life he wants. The father does not say a word in this very brief scene, which is also memorable. Then we see Moid there with him whose character was still young and she looks the way Elias remembered her. But Elias himself is old already at that point and he was not old when the spirit of his father came to him, so we know his father's death happened very early. As for Moid, the scene there was so realistically heartbreaking honestly in terms of what could have been. We find out she left, found another man and had children, but the words Elias (Krisch) said to her about how he loved her so deeply were incredibly touching and it's tough for your eyes not to get wet that moment. After Moid, women were never again a factor in Elias' life. The moment when we find out from Elias' sister that she has not responded to his letter was also quite sad. We do not know to what extent maybe Elias' parents had to do with it down there in the valley. Maybe they had, maybe they hadn't. The metaphor linked to Moid's chamois eyes was also sweet. Speaking of eyes or even wet eyes, the main character's eyes actually got wet when he was there in the mountains, still a young man at that point, watching a male deer and this was also an utterly fascinating moment. I can't call it a scene with how brief it was.
The most memorable scene in terms of animals was surely the one with the bird at the hospital, how he helps the bird to get free again. He himself could not get free again because of his health, but this shows that even when he is down there with civilization where he does not belong, his focus is fully on nature and animals and it will always be this way. He also does not become friends with any of the other residents, but his only real friend (apart from his sister) stays the man he met up there in the mountains, the one with whom he sang together when they met early on, which was one of the lightest moments the film had to offer. This man, even if Elias was also not always nice to him, came to visit Elias there at the hospital and you could see with their joking about being old that they had a special connection. I mean it made sense. He was pretty much almost the only human that Elias was in touch with for many decades. His only link to civilization and that was enough for him. I must also mention the nurse again or doctor whoever it was that took care of Elias and also told him the truth then that he will never be able to return up to the mountains. The actress was not just pretty, but also the character was likable with how she tried her best to comfort him and how she was honest of course. She could have left him with his illusion, but you could understand easily that she was fond of him and said something like he is a really valuable person and adds so much to the residence, even if he is not really capable of accepting the compliment and just tells her how long it will be until he can leave the place. So yeah, as you see from my rating, I think this film is (close to) a masterpiece. I was not sure I would watch it, but thanks to seeing Krisch in the cast I finally did and I don't regret it one bit. My new favorite from 2022 and it made me want to head to the mountains the moment I left the theater. A must-see.
