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Review

Judging by the recent wave of Austrian films hitting our shores, it’s apparently not a very happy place. Stuck in loveless and violent relationships, the characters in films by directors like Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl are either brutally satirized or given no hope of a rewarding future. In Antares, Austria’s official submission for the 2005 Oscars, writer-director Götz Spielmann injects a cautious optimism into this bleak world. The three stories, told in Amores Perros style with breathtakingly clever intersections, all involve troubled relationships whose participants are yearning for something better. In the first, Eva is a nurse who comes home to a husband more interested in his Bach records than her. She is revitalized by a carnal tryst with Tomas, who pushes her boundaries to frightening lengths. The second story involves Sonja, a pregnant grocery clerk who is obsessively jealous of her man Marcus (that he actually is cheating on her doesn’t help the situation). The final chapter portrays a realtor named Rabtisch who doesn’t accept that his ex, Nicole, has moved on, bored with his habitual violence and obsession with cars. Her innocent lover provides the hope for a life she never envisioned. Everyone is united by their depressingly fluorescent apartment complex, chance meetings and a tragic accident. Spielmann directs with stunning intensity, and the performances carry tremendous passion. Audiences have both applauded and walked out of screenings – either way, Antares packs one hell of a punch. Contains graphic sexual content. (German with English subtitles)

 -- David Gorgos