Last year, the arthouse drama “Gewalten” (English title “Forces“) celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale. Now the film by Austrian director Constantin Hatz is coming to German cinemas. The start date is 11 May 2023.
“Gewalten” manages without a single note of music in its almost 150 minutes. Cinematographer Rafael Starman‘s images were awarded the “Heiner Carow Prize for the Promotion of German Cinematic Art“ at the 2022 Berlinale.
Synopsis
In an isolated village, beyond time and geographical location, lives 14-year-old Daniel. The life of this gentle and tolerant boy, who only wants to please everyone, is marked by violence and emotional coldness. He sacrifices himself for his family, tries to please his violent older brother and devotedly cares for his terminally ill father, who longs for his own end but does not dare to end his life himself.
In the forest, Daniel meets Marcel, an outcast who has returned to the village after many years and ekes out a living by fighting dogs. The two are united by their receptivity to the comforting silence of the forest and an intense relationship with nature.
With a stoic expression, Daniel endures his dashed hopes as well as the humiliations of his emotionally stunted fellow men, as if he wants to avoid becoming just like them until the very end – even if that means surrendering to raw nature in the end.
Constantin Hatz was born in Vienna in 1989. He graduated from the Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt (“Federal College of Graphics“) with a focus on photography and audiovisual media in Vienna. He then studied directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. He has already been nominated twice for the “Thomas Strittmatter Drehbuchpreis“ (“Thomas Strittmatter Screenplay Award“) and has received the “Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis“ (“German Short Film Award“) and the “Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino” (“New German Cinema Award”) for his work, among others.
