REVANCHE World Cinema

The ex-con Alex (Johonnes Krisch) and his immigrant prostitute girlfriend Tamara (Irina Potapenko) ore desperate to escape the dangerous brothel where they work. Robert (Andreas Lust) is a police officer happily married to Ursula (Ursula Strauss), the two enjoying the serene splendor of a farmhouse they’ve designed and built themselves. A botched robbery and bullet fired astray set these characters on a collision course. What begins as a grim, melodramatic thriller in the finest tradition of Simenon and Highsmith soon spins into completely unexpected emotional territory as writer-director Geitz Spielmann reveals the characters’ wounded psyches and traces their uneven ores of redemption. With its long, carefully composed medium shots, the film ventures into rich, temporal territory, exploring real matters of life and death. Is this the first Buddhist thriller? Not for a minute does REVANCHE feel like on experiment, never losing its pure, soulful force, due to its rich detail, methodical pacing, the absence of o musical score and a superb ensemble cost led by Krisch, whose career in Europe is in rapid ascension thanks to this stunning debut.