If you had told me years ago that I’d fall in love with Vienna, I would have laughed in your face. What country is it in, again? Germany? Poland? Oh, yeah, Austria. And Vienna is famous for what, exactly? You guessed it, I was a cretinous and incurious American who, for a while anyway, reveled in his own ignorance.

As so often happens, I fell in love with Vienna because my wife kicked my ass in that direction. We were planning the details of our honeymoon. We’re not Puerto Vallarta or Honolulu-type vacationers, and Europe was on our minds. After offers, counteroffers, and counter-counteroffers, we settled on a week in Ireland and a week in Austria. I, naturally, knew nothing about Austria, and I figured I’d just roll with it.

You know what? Vienna was amazing.* Coffee shops and cafes that served the most delicious baked goods you’ve ever tasted. A kind of dusty, faded glory. Friendly people who still gave a damn about manners. Most importantly, a tangible sense of history. I knew that the cobblestones I stood on had been there long before I arrived and would be there long after I’d turned to dust. It felt both foreign and familiar to me. I loved it. Still do.

When I get attached to a region, I wish for movies to take place there. New York, L.A., and London are great and all, but there’s a lot of Earth that goes underappreciated in the cinematic sense. When I was made aware of Hinterland, a post-World War I serial killer thriller that takes place in my beloved Vienna, I asked, no, demanded that it be shoved into my eyeballs immediately. It’s good that this ancient city is thrust back into the spotlight. It’s better that Hinterland is a very good film.

You can imagine the surprise of the Austrian soldiers. They were told the hostilities would be over in a fortnight. They went out, heads held high, to do their bit for the Emperor. But they walked into the meat grinder of World War I. Peter Perg (Murathan Muslu) left Vienna as an idealist. After years spent in a Russian P.O.W. camp, he came home shattered. He didn’t get a parade, a medal, or even a handshake for a job well done. Instead, he’s brusquely decommissioned and pointed in the direction of a homeless shelter for veterans.

When Perg left Vienna, it was awash in waltzes and was ruled by an emperor. Now that the war has ended, Vienna is a republic, a place of shifting loyalties and gray hopelessness. It faces resolutely toward the future, meaning that it has no time for the past. Perg’s own country doesn’t care about its soldiers, and isn’t that always the way? They would just as soon he disappear, until they need his help.

Perg has a wife and daughter that have left the city and seemingly left him behind. The only people who knew what he went through at the camp were his comrades. They returned home together and went in search of a new life. Then, one of them is brutally murdered. Then another, and it becomes clear that a serial killer stalks the streets of Vienna. The murderer targets the members of Perg’s squad. With each killing, a message is sent, but what could it mean?

Detective Renner (Max von der Groeben) suspects Perg is the murderer, but Commissioner Severin (Marc Limpach) knows better. Before the war, Perg was a cop. A good one and Severin figures it can’t hurt to have Perg do some digging. Nobody takes this damaged man seriously, with the exception of Dr. Theresa Korner (Liv Lisa Fries), the city’s first female forensic doctor. She knows with the end of an age, new methods are needed to discover the truth behind a monster.

For the most part, Hinterland is a marvel of a film. For all of those people who groused over blockbusters and muttered, “Why can’t someone use special effects creatively?” know that Oscar-winning director Stefan Ruzowitzky heard your plea. Utilizing blue screen technology,** he’s created a postwar Vienna, though one with angles that couldn’t possibly exist and a feeling of unreality. The FX gives us an idea of how Perg sees the world, and Ruzowitsky has created a cinematic cross between Sin City and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It’s astounding work, and I applaud him for pushing the digital envelope in such a smart and innovative way.

Ruzowitzsky, along with Hanno Pinter and Robert Buchschwenter, wrote the screenplay. The majority of their script is quite strong. They spend just the right amount of time between the mystery itself, deliberate characterization showing these people navigating a new era, and the details of the new era itself. Time, however, is the problem with the third act. Once we learn who the killer is and why they’re bumping folks off, the nimble pacing stumbles. There are a few too many declarative speeches that could have been condensed, but considering that my complaint is about efficiency rather than the content of the story…I can work with it.

The cast acquits themselves nicely, and nobody seems to be at sea acting within a fully digital world. As Peter Perg, Murathan Muslu is a perfect combination of intelligent, vulnerable, competent, and damaged. We’ve seen performances like this before, yet Muslu makes the role feel lived in. Liv Lisa Fries as Dr. Korner has an almost giddy enthusiasm at being able to throw off old gender expectations and get her hands dirty. A particular standout is Marc Limpach as Commissioner Severin. Limpach plays the character as the kind of oily opportunist who glides through moments of historic change and always manages to come out on top.

Hinterland is a skilled mixture of excellent filmmaking and strong storytelling. It’s the kind of film that shouldn’t be slept on, and adventurous audiences will find much to love. While I wouldn’t want to visit that version of Vienna, it reminded me of the feeling of old cobblestones under my feet and the promise of a marvel around every corner in the city center.

 

*How much did I love Vienna? I love living in Colorado, and if you gave me the finances and means to move to Vienna and live comfortably, I’d peace out immediately. So can we talk about my writing for About Vienna, maybe?

**What’s the difference between blue screen and green screen? Read this for the answer.

Tim Brennan
Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.  
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