‘Western’
Directed by Valeska Grisebach
Starring Meinhard Neumann, Reinhardt Wetrek, Syuleyman Alilov Letifov
Unrated
Playing at Film Society at Lincoln Center
Where have all the cowboys gone? Perhaps they are building infrastructure near a remote Bulgarian village.
Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann) is a steely-eyed, emotionally reserved German who joins a group of his countrymen in a community they really know nothing about. “We’re back, only 70 years later,” the looking-for-trouble foreman Vincent (Reinhardt Wetrek) jokes.
They drill all day, sit outside with flies and drink beer from green bottles all night.
A trip to a river with some aggressive catcalling is the first indicator that friction between the newcomers and locals is coming.
But Meinhard soon finds himself bonding with the townies, especially Adrian (Syuleyman Alilov Letifov), whose precise civic role is unclear other than he’s obviously in charge, and you wouldn’t want to cross him. Adrian and his lackeys at first don’t know whether to believe Meinhard when he says he’s a former legionnaire who served time in Iraq. There’s no way to prove it, but he isn’t exactly boasting. Meinhard, who is borderline ostracized by the other Germans by this point, is hard to read, but he doesn’t seem to have ulterior motives.
Meinhard is an enigma to the audience, too, however we are in a unique position. The Germans and Bulgarians speak to one another with only a hazy understanding, but thanks to the subtitles only we get the full picture. Still, Meinhard and Adrian continue to bond, particularly over the care of a roaming white horse.
The film moves at its own slow, head-scratching pace. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that quite nails the discomfort of spending long stretches of time with people you don’t know enough to like or dislike, but are stuck with them either way.
Writer-director Valeska Grisebach is terrific with cultural details, especially since the characters can’t really communicate.
Naturally, the slights (some imagined, some real) lead to an East-versus-West conflict, but not exactly a high-plains shootout like the film’s title suggests.
