Western

A group of German construction workers start a tough job at a remote site in the Bulgarian countryside. The foreign land awakens the men's sense of adventure, but they are also confronted with their own prejudices and mistrust due to the language barrier and cultural differences with the native villagers. The foreman Vincent and the mysterious Meinhard also start to fall out.

The stage is quickly set for a showdown when the German workers begin to compete for recognition and favour from the local villagers.

Voted no 5 in the 2017 Sight and Sound poll.

Week Commencing 13th April

Week Commencing 20th April

Valeska Grisebach studied Philosophy and German Studies in Berlin, Munich and Vienna.

In 1993 she began studying to be a director at the Viennese Film Academy under Peter Patzak, Wolfgang Gluck and Michael Haneke. Her graduation film BE MY STAR was nominated for the Adolf-Grimme-Award in 2002 and received the Critics' Award at the Toronto International Film Festival as well as the Grand Jury Award at the Turin Film Festival.

Her second feature film, LONGING, premiered in 2006 in the Berlinale Competition. The film received several awards, including the Special Jury Award in Buenos Aires, the Grand Prix Asturias at the Gijon International Film Festival and the Special Jury Award at the Warsaw International Film Festival.

Filmography

2017 WESTERN - Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2017

2006 SEHNSUCHT / LONGING - Berlinale Competition 2006

2001 MEIN STERN / BE MY STAR

★★★★★

'One of the films of the year has arrived – maybe the best of the year – a work of unmatched subtlety, complexity and artistry...

Valeska Grisebach’s striking drama constantly subverts genre expectations. Grisebach has not, in fact, made many movies, but on the strength of this one, she deserves to be considered a major film-maker.'

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

★★★★★

'Grisebach has an observational grasp of the male psyche – especially its pathological obsession with pride – that fairly takes the breath away.

'...(a) mesmerising psychological drama.'

Tim Robey, The Daily Telegraph

★★★★★

'Boasts a vibrant realism and humanism that translate into a delicate miracle.'

Manuela Lazic, Little White Lies

'As lean as its leading character, Western beguiles with its sharp intelligence and understated emotions.'

Allan Hunter, The List

★★★★

'Compellingly drawn story'

Trevor Johnston, Time Out

'Valeska Grisebach's stunning existential study of masculinity tips its hat to classic genre cinema even as it casts an extraordinary troupe of non-professional actors as its grizzled migrant construction workers in a foreign land.'

Giovanni Marchini Camia, Sight & Sound

'Just because a film features horses, guns and the great outdoors doesn't mean that it's a Western; just because it's set in Bulgaria doesn't mean that it's not one. Western, the third feature by German director Valeska Grisebach (Be My Star, Longing) deals with certain classic oater tropes - notably, the figure of the strong, silent loner hero - in the context of cultural and economic relations in contemporary Europe.'

Jonathan Romney, Screen International

'This brilliantly observed mood piece about a German road crew arriving in rural Bulgaria centres on one lone quietly watchful man doing his best to assimilate.'

Nick James, Sight & Sound

'One of the best films to premiere last year, Western is probably also the best film since Claire Denis' Beau Travail to be made by a woman about men.'

Jonathan Romney, Film Comment

'About the interactions of a motley group of German construction workers, both with each other and with the inhabitants of a remote Bulgarian village where they’re working for the summer, the film is an utterly credible, brilliantly insightful study of a certain kind of masculinity.'

Geoff Andrew, BFI online

'For those with a sudden interest in new German cinema thanks to last years Toni Erdmann, the Cannes Film Festival has again selected another powerful, deeply human and intricately political drama in Valeska Grisebach's terrific Western.'

Daniel Kasman Mubi Notebook

'The closest this festival came to a major work - Western shares the slow-building intensity of Grisebach's shattering previous feature Longing (2006).'

Dennis Lim, Film Comment

Interview with Valeska Grisebach in Criterion

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