Euro Hangebruch’s ‘Bullet Vein‘ comes this year with a very interesting story for the enthusiasts. Quoting from the synopsis, it is the story of a “tragic death of a young lady that causes a dramatic reunion of an old gunslinger, a prostitute and a suitor. Everyone bears a dark secret on his own and still they are tied to a joint fate. An emotional duel will decide about life and death of everyone.”
Words can hardly describe the complexity of this movie, as it is one of the best features we’ve seen in our festival so far. We will try to take one by one the elements and see if they can stand alone or if they are only great together.
First of all, we will take the story. Hangebruch imagined set the action of ‘Bullet Vein’ in the wild-west, with very good scenery and cast. The setting is quite simple, but scores big at symbolism. The inn, the – what seems to be a- graveyard, are very well constructed, in a slightly minimalistic way, not being cliché. The lightning and the shadow play are flawless, enhancing the key moments and transmitting way more that one could expect.
The cast is brilliant – Thomas Anzenhofer, Susen Ermich, Linus Ebner, Timo Hübsch-, they all play very good and consistent roles, showing with great ease all their insecurities and fears.
The viewer is introduced in a slightly calm and organized manner. The feature, however, constructs a distance, a self-marginalization, an overview that can rarely be experienced in the middle of reality. The plot is not a refuge from the reality, at least not this one. The atmosphere resembled that of a social conflict, carried on fast forward. The discomfort, understood as part of the change, appears to be the red thread of this feature. The gunpoint moments are part of that discomfort, and there is where we are expecting the plot twist. Usually it is like this – a bullet can change the whole course of the story; we’ve seen this move in thousands of movies and ‘Bullet Vein’ took the same path.
Euro Hangebruch designed a movie that has all the ingredients for being this year’s revelation. It is hard to compete in a festival with a feature like ‘Bullet Vein’. Of course, challenges are good in art every time, but to beat such a complex movie, the opponent has to be prepared because a “fight” like this one is really worth seeing.
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