Cast: Simon Schwarz, Sophie Rois, Lars Rudolph, Julia Gschnitzer, Tilo Prückner, Ulrich Wildgruber
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Producers: Danny Krausz, Kurt Stocker
Screenplay: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Cinematography: Peter von Haller
Music: Erik Satie
U.S. Distributor: Stratosphere Entertainment
In German with subtitles
The Inheritors, Austria's official entry into the 1999 Academy Awards, is a dark and effective tale that examines both aspects of the human spirit - the triumphant, courageous side and the mean, small-minded one. In this movie, as is often the case in real life, merely possessing the former does not guarantee victory over the forces of the latter. Petty people have a habit of not abiding by the rules, and, when placed on an even playing field with trusting men and women, will often win because of the steps they're willing to take. This sad lesson, which we all know from personal experience, is reinforced by The Inheritors.
The film, which transpires somewhere in rural Austria during pre-World War II days, opens with a murder. Hillinger, a well-known farmer in the region, is brutally killed by a mysterious woman. In life, Hillinger was notoriously stingy and detestable (he raped at least two of the peasant women working for him, and mistreated everyone else), but in death, he is surprisingly generous (or so it first seems). In his will, instead of bequeathing his land and livestock to the Church, he gives it to the ten peasants who toiled for him. Suddenly, this small group, none of whom have ever had a possession in their lives, are given the opportunity to work for themselves, not for someone else. With this sudden, unexpected freedom thrust upon them, they have no idea what to do. (I was reminded of stories about the difficulties encountered by many ex-slaves freed in the aftermath of the Civil War.)
Dissension splits their ranks. The hateful foreman (Tilo Pruckner) agrees to sell the inheritance to a wealthy farmer, Danniger (Ulrich Wildgruber), who covets the property. However, the majority, led by the free-spirited Lukas (Simon Schwarz) and his sometimes-bedmate, Emmy (Sophie Rois), disputes the foreman's right to sell the land, and ultimately drives him and two others off the farm. The remaining seven agree to work the land together. But their idyllic existence is doomed. The land-owners of the district bear nothing but ill-will for the would-be peasants-turned-farmers, and are determined to bring them down.
The Inheritors works on two levels - as a character drama and as an allegory about the fate of those who defy a corrupt and overwhelming power. There's something of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Fyodor Dostoevsky in Ruzowitzky's script. In addition to an undisguised social message, The Inheritors is not afraid to throw some dark humor and light fantasy into an otherwise grim tale. The actors, none of whom I am familiar with, do credible jobs.
For those who are accustomed to owning possessions, the central idea of The Inheritors opens up a new way of thinking. When it comes to the conflict between the haves and the have-nots, most of us would like to believe that we identify with the latter group, but, in reality, we probably have more in common with the former. Yet the message here is not that property is the root of all evil, but that the covetousness of the human heart is a breeding ground for ill-will. And one need not look as far as The Inheritors to see incontrovertible evidence of that truth.
© 1998 James Berardinelli