Das gefrorene Herz

Winter. Two small villages in the Swiss mountains: Vorderau and Hinterau. Two outlaws, anumbrella-mender and a basket-maker become friends. After one too many schnapps theumbrella-mender, searching for his lost love, freezes to death in the rugged forest between thetwo villages. The basket-maker finds the body of his friend and reports the death to the authoritiesof Hinterau. Since the dead man is entirely without means, his body is secretly smuggled toand fro over the border of the two communities, since each village wishes the other to pay for thefuneral. Thanks to the cunning basket-maker the umbrella-mender is finally ceremoniously buriedin Hinterau. The basket-maker, who had told his friend that he was done with women, meets thedead man's girl-friend, Rosy, who finally shows him that true love and lust really is worth dying for.

Xavier Koller's adaptation and directionof Meinrad Inglin's short storyis spiced with a great sense ofhumor. A comedy at its best! Heeasily managed to broaden the slimInglin text to the proportion of afull-length feature and paints abaroque, expressionistic picture ofthose two sleepy mountain villagesand it's burlesque inhabitants.Koller enriched the piece by inventingnew characters, creating freshmotivations and a fair amount ofvery funny situations to push thestory forward. His ensemble ofexcellent actors, the atmosphericdense camera work by Hans Liechti,the extended use of make up aswell as a unique costume designand art direction create a world ofits own: A fairy tale of authentic,universal quality - and a lot of fun.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung''