Movie review, The Wall by Julian Poelsler
Reviewed by Gerti
When you think of "The Wall," most likely you think of the album and movie by the British rock band, Pink Floyd. That's probably why so few people, myself included, have heard of this brilliant post-apocalyptic film of the same name, main in 2013 by Austrian director, Julian Poesler. It is based on a book by Marlen Haushofer, and stars the unknown-to-me actress Martina Gedeck, who is onscreen almost the whole time.
It tells the story of a woman, played by Gedeck, who accompanies an elderly couple to their hunting cabin in the upper Austrian alps. The pair decide upon arriving to walk down to the nearest village, but when they fail to arrive that evening, their companion simply thinks they were too tired to return by foot the same day. By the next morning, however, she fears the worst for them, and rushed down the path they took that afternoon to try and find them, in case one has suffered a heart attack or some other injury. She takes with her the couple's dog, Lynx, who the day before had curiously refused to accompany them.
What she finds is that an invisible wall, clear as a window, cuts her off from the rest of humanity. She feels along its length like a mime, and eventually tries driving the couple's Mercedes into it. The car crashes; the wall is that strong. She spends much of the early film trying to test its limits in size and strength, seeing if she can go down the other side of the mountain to get past it, but she cannot. She and Lynx are trapped, but trapped in such a paradise, that it seems as though loneliness is her only enemy.
Over time, she and Lynx meet a pregnant cow, who has a calf and keep them supplied with milk. Their party of survivors grows larger when a stray cat turns up in a terrible rainstorm. That cat also has a kitten, but things turn out badly for both young animals. As the months and years go by, you see the woman's life through her diary written on the reverse sides of calendars she finds at the cabin. She narrates her story for the viewer, an impressive one of hope and despair, fear, and ultimately survival.
The story and the movie are uniquely Austrian. Breathtaking Alpine scenes are shown to the most beautiful violin music, in contrast to the harsh, insipid rock 'n'roll the older couple played on their way to the cabin. The woman has deep and poignant thought about the meaning of life, the relationship of man to nature, and her relationship to her animal companions. In this apocalypse, she learns to plant and harvest food, caring for her small group and interacting with the other animals of the forest. She regards herself as a "one off", sole survivor in a world without other humans, until one day something terrible happens.
The movie is a love letter to the Alps, and a deep conversation about what it means to be human, for good or evil. It is haunting and spectacular all at once.
