"Der Unfisch" or "Sophies Wal" or "The Unfish" is an Austrian German-language movie from 1997, so this one is already over 20 years old and it was directed by Oscar nominee Robert Dornhelm,, who is certainly much more known than his writer here Michael Köhlmeier. But the big names that all German and Austrian film buffs will recognize are in the cast list here: Schrader, Lust, Merkatz, Zeller, Weessely, Leder and Zeiler to mention only a few. Really impressive and all of them alre still well-known today here in the German-speaking regions. Maybe only to movie maniacs like myself, but still. Now as for the film itself. It runs for slightly over 1.5 hours and has Maria Schrader playing the main character. I must say I am generally a bit critical when it comes to her and I don't really think she is a great actress, but I was impressed by her as a director in that recent Stefan Zweig movie starring Josef Hader. And in this film here, Schrader also plays the central character pretty well I must say. Her stunning looks don't hurt either. This is the story of a woman who inherits a big whale and the trick about it all is that every time she has sex with somebody inside that whale, the man can make a wish and it will become true. The mail man (now rich) approves although he did not expect it to happen at all. Of course, this is something that made waves pretty quickly and everybody who wants money, power or whatever else wants a piece of the cake / of the whale. Also funny by the way how the main character's sexual preference was never a subject, but yeah the whole emancipation and #metoo and political correctness thingey was not a factor back then and people could enjoy a good movie like this one here without nit-picking all kinds of alleged discrimination and sexism. Oh well. Lets not drift away. I think it was a funny movie. Sure the plot at its center is so absurd that it is almost impossible to really make a dramatic impact convincingly, but it does not need to in order to work and become a success and still there are some critical thoughts that worked very well in terms of how they depicted society and with that I am of course talking mostly about the ending where humans in their greed and envy destroy the miracle. The miracle fish? Well no, whales aren't fish as the title also gives away. It sounds good, the title, but it is not really a great choice I would say, even if the word Unfisch is still captivating. What would I have changed? Maybe make the film 10 minutes shorter as here and there were a few lengths. The narration also did not add as much as I hoped it would, even if it wasn't bad by any means, so it's fine. Keep it. Maybe the end makes audiences, including myself, about some mediocrities before that. Still overall, it was a pretty unique watch I must say and I recommend checking it out. This was picked by Austria by the way as submission to the Oscars for the foreign language category that year, but it did not get picked by the Academy. I am not surprised. Not at all. This film is probably way too weird and bizzared for the Oscars. And that is exactly why you want to see it. Go for it if you get the chance. It's not particularly easy to get your hand on a copy nowadays anymore. It's not forgotten, but fairly difficult to find.
3 Reviews
Funny with the beautiful Maria Schrader
dvdfile4 October 2004
A highly entertaining, yet intelligent, film about the demarcations between need, desire, greed and envy. Magic and miracles happen when the lady who inherits the big whale sleeps with someone in that fully furnished and lighted, dead animal, the guy gets a wish of his fulfilled. One by one, everyone falls for Maria Shrader's charms and their own greed, as the whale becomes a brothel.
What?????
bevo-136782 April 2020
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