TIERE/ ANIMALS
Switzerland/ Austria, 2017, 95 minutes, Colour.
Birgit Minichmayr, Philipp Hochmair, Mona Petri, Mehdi Nebbou, Michael Ostrowki.
Directed by Greg Zglinski.
A film designed to intrigue. A woman, in scarlet, falls to her death from an apartment balcony and then her body disappears. A novelist goes on holidays to Switzerland with her husband. He is having an affair with a woman upstairs – who seems to be the woman who has fallen from the window.
During the journey to the holiday house, the couple hit a sheep and what follows plays on time and identity. The couple let their house out to a woman who is eager to live there, has an accident hurting her neck, is treated by local doctor who is attracted to her and they begin an affair. The actress who portrays this woman also portrays the woman upstairs.
The ex-husband of the woman upstairs comes to the building, accosts the boarder who explains who she is. There are also phone calls from the husband – and then the death of the woman.
In the meantime, the wife, who is a novelist, has dreams, hallucinations, suspects her husband of affair – which is true.
Something of a psychological jigsaw piece puzzle.
1. The title? Suggestions of the English translation should be “beasts� instead of “animals�?
2. The contemporary settings? The city and homes? Workplaces? Florist shop? The open roads, the Swiss countryside? The home? Cafes? The musical score?
3. The opening with the woman falling to her death? The red dress? The disappearance? The indication of shifts of time?
4. The couple, going on holiday, her being a writer, the tensions between the two, his professions of love? The car, his going upstairs, speaking with Andrea, his affair with her, being away six months?
5. The travel on the road, talk, bickering? Hitting the sheep? Nick buying the sheep, his wife not wanting to eat it? His cooking it? And the episode of the bird flying in the house, its death? The sitting in the car in the rain, the wife being dragged from the car? A dream?
6. Nick, going into town, his alleged business? Recipes? His wife finding his notes, copying them from books? Her burning the notes, confronting him? The affair with the woman at the shop?
7. Mischa, her coming to take over the flat during their absence, showing her around, the wife clutching her hand saying she would not see her again? The woman surveying
the flat? Falling and injuring her head? The doctor, bandaging her? Her impression that he had lost a finger? His inviting her out, going back home, the affair?
8. The man buying the flowers from the florist, his phone call, his relationship with Andrea? Divorce? His going to the apartment? His knocking on the door, Mischa and his mistaking her for Andrea? The episode of Andrea’s death and Mischa’s reaction?
9. The wife, her injury, the hospital, difficulties in time, the fortnight passing? Her being inside and outside? The repetition of the scene with the sheep? Her writing, her novel about killing a husband? The chapters?
10. The interconnection between what was happening in the city, Andrea and her death, Mischa and her taking the apartment, relationship with the doctor? Injury? The wife’s injury? The husband and his infidelity, the phone call and the messages on the phone? Andrea’s husband? The same actress as Mischa and Andrea?
11. A multifaceted dramatic jigsaw pieces?
