Brigitte, I wish you had told me how brutal some of those scenes were, this movie was seriously nerve-wracking! OUCH!! And I loved this film, so let me know if you've ever seen THE WICKER MAN because it reminded me of that.
I have to write this review quickly, before somebody else does it and dares mention Die Wildnis and The Wickerman in one sentence!
Next to Das Boot, this is my favorite film with Jürgen. It is absolutely gripping from beginning to end. All the actors are very good, also there is a lot of opportunity for Jürgen for good acting. The filming has been done with great care, the village and especially the cold feel absolutely real! Just watch, how poor Jürgen gets more and more dishevelled as the story continues.
I can't explain the end and I don't think one has to, it goes with the slightly otherworldy feeling of the rest of the film. Also, I think, the director is Austrian, which would be enough of an explanation, they have a leaning towards the absurd!
A warning to sensitive people: there are some brutal scenes, but is not brutality for its own sake. The point of the film is, that civilisation, democracy or Christianity are only a thin veneer on the much older laws of nature.
PS Don't cancel your next holiday in Switzerland, it is only a movie and your average Swiss mountain village depends on tourism and would be a lot more welcoming. There are no wolves in Switzerland!
Yeah, NOW you warn sensitive people! Just for that, here's a wink: ;) I'm not the least bit sensitive to movie violence, which is why it surprised me so much to be as affected by this as I was... and one of the brilliant things about it: it wasn't a question of gore; it was the psychology of the way the scenes were set up. I can't remember the last time brutality in a movie just made me cringe the way this did.
Another thing that struck me was the Christmas-card gorgeousness of the movie. The mountains! The trees! The snow! The rustic wood cabins with the frosty windows! The sheer beauty of it all is so much at odds with the utterly nightmarish events that it makes the whole thing that much creepier. Breathtaking scenery... with a big bloody bone in the snow in the middle of nowhere. I'll never look at snow quite the same way again.
And I tell you one thing: after seeing those two nighttime attacks on Jürgen in this movie, I won't be going out in the dark by myself again for a long time. Ow ow ow!