The Swiss are hardly noted for their thriving film industry, but viewers shouldn't let that affect their pre-conceptions about Sennentuntschi: Curse Of The Alps. This wonderfully atmospheric chiller from Swiss director Michael Steiner manages to be a real surprise. That is to say: creepy, mysterious and ingenious in equal measure. Steiner takes a piece of ancient Alpine folklore and fashions it into an absorbing 1970s-set thriller, boosted in no small part by its vast, lonely mountain locale, as well as a clutch of memorable performances by the main actors.
The story moves – perhaps too ambitiously – along three fronts. It opens in the present with an intriguing sequence in which a young girl uncovers a long-lost corpse in alpine woodland, guided to its resting place by a ghostly apparition. The second segment shows a long flashback describing a series of unnerving events which brought fear and superstition to the region in 1975. Following the shocking suicide of a priest in a remote Swiss community, the villagers suddenly find their superstitions brought to a head when a young mute girl (Roxanne Mesquida) turns up. Everyone assumes that her inexplicable appearance is somehow connected to the priest's death, except for village cop Sebastian Reusch (Nicholas Ofczarek) who isn't prepared to explain away the puzzling mystery with talk of ghosts and ghouls. The locals express concern that something may also have happened to a trio of herdsmen who live and work high on the mountain behind their village, and urge Reusch to go up to make sure they are safe and well. He does, but when he reaches their high alpine farm there is no-one there. Reusch simply assumes they are out hunting and returns to the village. The third thread of the story, presented as a flashback within a flashback, recounts the story of the three shepherds (Carlos Leal, Andrea Zogg and Joel Basman). Drunk, lonely and frustrated, their decision to make a 'Sennentuntschi' (a woman of straw, given life by the devil) has grave consequences for everyone.
Steiner skilfully blurs the chronology of his story, creating a fragmentary narrative which keeps audiences guessing right to the very end. This disjointed rearrangement of narrative and time threatens to become irritating in the early stages, but Steiner quickly wins over the audience with his uniquely unsettling style. Mystery is piled upon mystery, intrigue upon intrigue, drawing the viewer into a labyrinth of perverted fairy-tale and superstitious frenzy The performances are pitch-perfect, with Mesquida in particular giving a riveting turn as the titular creature. Is she a minion of the devil or just the innocent victim of irrational backwoods beliefs? Her wordless portrayal of the 'Sennentuntschi' is absolutely central to the success of the whole film, and she is, in a word, excellent. To convey such a range of emotion solely through eye contact and body language is no mean feat. Ofczarek, Leal, Zogg and Basman all add memorable characterisations of their own, while Ueli Jaeggi rounds things off impressively as a fanatical priest with murky ulterior motives. Sennentuntschi: Curse Of The Alps is a beautiful-looking, cleverly crafted horror film with much to admire. If it is indicative of the future of Swiss movie-making, then audiences have a lot of good stuff to look forward to!
The story moves – perhaps too ambitiously – along three fronts. It opens in the present with an intriguing sequence in which a young girl uncovers a long-lost corpse in alpine woodland, guided to its resting place by a ghostly apparition. The second segment shows a long flashback describing a series of unnerving events which brought fear and superstition to the region in 1975. Following the shocking suicide of a priest in a remote Swiss community, the villagers suddenly find their superstitions brought to a head when a young mute girl (Roxanne Mesquida) turns up. Everyone assumes that her inexplicable appearance is somehow connected to the priest's death, except for village cop Sebastian Reusch (Nicholas Ofczarek) who isn't prepared to explain away the puzzling mystery with talk of ghosts and ghouls. The locals express concern that something may also have happened to a trio of herdsmen who live and work high on the mountain behind their village, and urge Reusch to go up to make sure they are safe and well. He does, but when he reaches their high alpine farm there is no-one there. Reusch simply assumes they are out hunting and returns to the village. The third thread of the story, presented as a flashback within a flashback, recounts the story of the three shepherds (Carlos Leal, Andrea Zogg and Joel Basman). Drunk, lonely and frustrated, their decision to make a 'Sennentuntschi' (a woman of straw, given life by the devil) has grave consequences for everyone.
Steiner skilfully blurs the chronology of his story, creating a fragmentary narrative which keeps audiences guessing right to the very end. This disjointed rearrangement of narrative and time threatens to become irritating in the early stages, but Steiner quickly wins over the audience with his uniquely unsettling style. Mystery is piled upon mystery, intrigue upon intrigue, drawing the viewer into a labyrinth of perverted fairy-tale and superstitious frenzy The performances are pitch-perfect, with Mesquida in particular giving a riveting turn as the titular creature. Is she a minion of the devil or just the innocent victim of irrational backwoods beliefs? Her wordless portrayal of the 'Sennentuntschi' is absolutely central to the success of the whole film, and she is, in a word, excellent. To convey such a range of emotion solely through eye contact and body language is no mean feat. Ofczarek, Leal, Zogg and Basman all add memorable characterisations of their own, while Ueli Jaeggi rounds things off impressively as a fanatical priest with murky ulterior motives. Sennentuntschi: Curse Of The Alps is a beautiful-looking, cleverly crafted horror film with much to admire. If it is indicative of the future of Swiss movie-making, then audiences have a lot of good stuff to look forward to!