Revanche
Director: Götz Spielmann
Starring: Johannes Krisch, Andreas Lust, Irina Potapenko, Ursula
Strauss, Hannes Thanheiser
Country: Austria
Year: 2008
Length: 2h01
Original language: German
Website:
http://www.revanche.at
Synopsis
A nature scene. Late summer. A small lake
in the woods. No people. Silence.
Not far away, a newly built
house inhabited by a couple: Robert (Andreas Lust) and Susanne
(Ursula Strauss). They live an ordinary life like so many other
people.
Meanwhile in Vienna. Nightlife, red light district, the
world of prostitution. Here money rules. Most people have jobs
that barely let them scrape by. Like Alex and Tamara (Johannes
Krisch and Irina Potapenko). She is a prostitute from Ukraine;
he, the boss’s errand boy. They are lovers, but they have to keep
it a secret. Employees aren't allowed to engage in amorous
relations.
They want to escape this life, but they need money
first. Alex devises a plan to rob a bank in a little village out
in the countryside. Tamara wants to come along, and he
reluctantly agrees.
Everything is going exactly as planned until
a policeman, Robert, happens to walk up. He fires a few shots at
the getaway car as it speeds off, and hits the young woman.
Overcome with despair, Alex leaves the body behind in a forest
clearing.
He lies low at his grandfather’s place. The old man
lives on a desolate farm at the edge of the woods. Silent and
withdrawn, Alex begins the task of chopping the firewood for the
approaching winter. He is consumed with pain, grief, and the hate
he harbours for the man responsible for Tamara’s death.
A lake in
the woods, the place where Robert goes to be alone. Now he comes
here to try to sort out what has happened. Alex observes the
policeman, spies on him, follows him as he goes about his daily
routine. And he meets Susanne, the policeman’s wife.
The lives of
all these people will change as a result of Tamara’s death – more
radically than they suspect. And autumn comes, just as it does
every year.