Der Rattengott

A very nifty, Dali-esque credit sequence ushers us in to a film full of atmosphere and dread, but just fall short of the mark of being a great film. Still, I'm glad I stumbled upon it.

In a Croatian town young writer Ivan is struggling to make ends meet, and no one cares, because everyone else is struggling to make ends meet too. The country is going through a very bad economical downturn and Ivan has been forced to try and sell his books on the streets, and it is in this flea market that he meets mysterious girl Sonja. Sonja shows him kindness by giving him her scarf, but during a protest on the street the two become separated and Ivan go to the park to sleep on a bench, having been evicted earlier that day...

Ivan must have one of those faces, because even though the patrolman in the park tells him he can't sleep on a bench, he does show him a huge empty bank that he can use for a few nights, as long as he keeps his mouth shut about it. Ivan agrees, and accessing the bank via a sewer grate, he finds an empty office to bed down in. He's too hungry to wonder why someone has stashed a huge amount of food in one of the cupboards, and is also delighted to find that the phone still works, which means he can try and track down Sonja.

It's about this point I started wondering if anything was going to happen and it was about this point that the director flew from Croatia to my house, kicked down my front door, rushed into the living room and hoofed me in the nuts, shouting "YES, something is going to happen." And he was right! Hearing music, Ivan creeps through the bank to find what looks like a huge dinner party/orgy going on in the main entrance, only some of these people look a bit...odd. About two minutes later, everyone is called to stand before a shadowy figure who we soon find out intends to take over the world...someone who thrives in poverty and disease. Der Rattengott!

It's a kind of They Live situation involving rats, with Ivan finding himself joining up with a very small group of people going up against an increasingly large amount of rat humans who love getting jobs within the civil service. Paranoia also sets in as it turns out they can imitate people Ivan knows. Can he find a way out or is he rat nuggets? My kids have two rats, I wonder what they would have made of this one if they weren't more intent in climbing up my trousers and punching me in the scrotum for a laugh.

It looks like there wasn't much of budget for this one but it's good to watch the increasingly paranoid Ivan trying to get around town without losing his marbles. The rat/human effects are that great though, but the film's atmosphere is dark and broody. The only problem is that there's maybe too much brooding and not enough munching, as following the initial discovery of the rat people, things don't get manic enough. Still, it's short and well worth sitting down for.

As far as I am aware this is a 1976 Yugoslav film, Izavitely, translated on my copy as The Rat Saviour, a certain other film site would also seem to bare this out. In any event, this is a very hard to find and very unusual film that is well worth watching. Bit of a Kafkaesque tale involving a plague of rats. But there is more to this than that and although there are allusions to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this is a unique film and if I say that there is some overlap with some of the humans and some of the rats and that I watched this with German dialogue, to great effect, you will probably get my drift. Stunning opening credits usher in a dark and moody film that doesn't once let up. Lead actor reminds a little of a young Polanski but all the cast perform well and the shadowy cinematography is excellent. The cover illustration shown is rather misleading, although the scene briefly appears. My own copy has enlarged the inset detail top right, which is still rather fanciful. Still, never mind, the film is certainly just that little bit different.

Mr. Papic's film is definitely burdened with a Yugoslavian heritage - a low budget, a skimpy music score and crude, poor sets complete the image of a flagship example of coarse genre cinema from behind the Iron Curtain. To this should be added the scarcely original inspiration for the screenplay - a socialist paraphrase of the American classic of science fiction horror cinema, namely Invasion of the Body Snatchers from the 1950s.

Everything promised an evening spent with a niche monstrosity from a forgotten tape. And yet the unexpected happened - the film is surprisingly solid!

Charmingly played by an anthology of period characters, the plethora of characters resembles the construction of the stories of A. Christie, the plot of rats is developed in such an original way that not only can not be said to be plagiarism, but an interesting paraphrase. Additional thrill is added by appropriately conducted suspense and properly dosed, like a secret spice, gothic atmosphere.

Oh, and that mysterious Sonia....

A strange film this, this Invasion of the Bodysnatchers aping affair from Soviet era Yugoslavia. Quite pointed in its criticisms, its notion of poverty and decay giving rise to seductive, destructive, downright monstrous collectivism. And a new movement not just monstrous but ah!, shock horror! decadent also. Seems to have survived intact though, I guess the censor must have been sleeping on the job or else just passed it through as a moonshine delusion (being as how its fairly weird and all). So for a plot, a homeless writer takes refuge in an abandoned hotel and spies a party of rat people, if this weren't unnerving enough they plan to kill the father of the winsome lass on whom his sights are set. So they come together, trying to come up with a rat person poison whilst eluding infection themselves. To be honest stripped from context this is actually pretty mundane stuff, but well arranged, it wraps about the attention like some piece of anthology science fiction, with the same sort of pattern of minor jolts building to stronger, risings and fallings to an ending of suitable ambiguity. There's suspicion in the outset that all may be delusion, and so a two pronged potential, evil as delusion superimposed on order, or perhaps order itself as a manner of madness. This leads to little though, the film generally evades attempts to not be taken as literal narrative (even if it is allegory). Still, as a time filling science fiction curio this hits enough of the right beats. Ivica Vidovic is a solid enough hero, run down and freaked out but well capable of handling himself in crisis, and he has able support from Fabijab Sovagovic as a helpful elderly scientist and Mirjana Majurec bears pleasing wisps of light and charm as his lovely daughter. There's some restrained but creepy effects work though little actual violence to speak of and the full fledged creature design towards the end is a little silly and too blatantly shown. Real live rats provide some discreet but effective chills too and work well with the cluttered, grimy setting. Creepy crawling score does well for the atmosphere too. Not really enough here for a hearty endorsement, but for those that like to scurry in the dark, scamper in the obscure this is certainly watchable enough. Solid 5/10.