Some films leave you with such an oppressive feeling that you can remember them for quite a while. Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” is certainly one of them, as is a new film from Switzerland. The drama “Three Winters”, which is supposed to be in the running for the foreign Oscar for Switzerland, is now coming to the cinema. The film takes place in a small mountain village.
The story is told of Marco, a taciturn guy who likes to drink iced tea and begins a relationship with the waitress and postman Anna. Others in the village have doubts that this will last. The two get married. Then Marco is diagnosed with a brain tumor and his behavior spirals out of control.
Director Michael Koch tells the story with economical means. At the beginning you see a rock, rugged and a little overgrown. You can hear a singing choir. The choir appears again and again, embedded in the landscape, singing and staring straight ahead.
The shots are often long lasting and this hardly gives you a chance to escape from what you are seeing. The relationship between the two, which may not seem understandable at first, but seems tender, gets into trouble. For example when Marco becomes violent.
The film is originally called “Drii Winter” and shows life with the seasons. It ran in the competition at the Berlinale and received an honorable mention from the jury. There is a lot of silence and a question that Anna initially asks when she is intoxicated by a motorbike ride, finds a sober answer: “What if it’s all just a dream?”
Three winters, Switzerland/Germany 2022, 137 minutes, FSK from 12 years, by Michael Koch, with Michèle Brand, Simon Wisler, Elin Zgraggen
