Tout un hiver sans feu

I saw this film at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival. I like films that have a small central cast as in this with the farmer and his wife, The brother and sister from the factory and in lesser roles the wife's sister and the farmer's farmhand. Lot's of irony here with a man who's life has been forever altered by fire who because of that he prohibits the use of any fire on his property despite the winter which has set in. He ends up being in front of an inferno of flames everyday at his foundry job. Meanwhile as the ember of love seems to die out from his marriage new sparks ignite with another woman. The husband and wife are going through an emotional and mental meltdown while the brother and sister and their family are going through a re-firing of their mental and emotional sate of being. Long Winter Without Fire has a cold, icy look and feel to it. Marie Matheron as Laure and Gabriella Muskala as Labinota turn in fine performances. I would rate this a 7.0 out of a possible 10 and recommend it.

Six months after losing their five years old daughter in a fire in the barn of their little farm, Jean (Aurélien Recoing) and his wife Laure (Marie Matheron) are facing troubles in their relationship and financial problems. Laure grieves the loss of their daughter and blames herself for her absence and Jean for his negligence for the fire; Jean is trying to rise from the ashes and somehow rebuild his life; and the insurance company refuses to pay the prize for the accident. Jean asks for a job in a mill to a friend to make money and support the psychiatric treatment of Laure. In his new job, he meets and becomes friend of the Kosovo refugee's siblings Kastriot (Blerim Gjoci) and Labinota (Gabriela Muskaa), while the Laure's sister Valérie (Nathalie Boulin) separates them. Jean feels the passion of love and sense of life in his relationship with Labinota, who had her life destroyed with the war.

This film is a touching story of traumatized people that had their lives destroyed somehow having their second chance. Jean, who lost his beloved little daughter, tries to overcome his grief and bring sense back to his life; Labinota, who lost her beloved husband in the stupid war, feels some kind of attraction for Jean but is bonded to family ties; and the weak and sensitive Laure, who seems to be incapable to rebuild her marriage and live a normal life with her husband again. The story is totally connected to the coldness of the winter, with the grieving of Jean, Labinota and Laure, and to the fire, with the fire in the barn, the fire in the mill, the campfire of Jean's employee and the flame of his passion of Labinota. I understand in the ambiguous and metaphoric conclusion that Jean and Labinota stay together in the end. The solid interpretations and direction make this little movie a gem to be discovered by fans of cinema as art. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Inverno Despedaçado" ("Shattered Winter")

This harrowing portrayal of loss, love and cows is an emotional journey which juxtaposes a couples' grief at losing a child with the grief of the Kosovars after the genocide.

Jean is a farmer trying to rebuild his life after his daughters death while his wife becomes increasingly detached both from him and reality. The bleakness of the landscape, the unspoken blame for the death of his daughter and the pressure from his family weighs Jean down to such an extent that we can feel him carrying his burden as he moves about every scene.

As Jean finds farming increasingly unable to sustain him and the cost of care for his wife he takes work in town at the fabrication factory where he befriends a young Kosovar. Through him he meets his sister who lost her husband during the genocide. The resilience of the Kosovar community who have suffered such great horrors is contrasted with the private grief of a father.

The film is a wonderfully honest depiction of relationships and love, and if you allow it, proves highly rewarding viewing.

I first saw this about a year ago in a theater here in Switzerland, and I recently rewatched it on DVD. Happily, it's one of those movies that actually improves with a second viewing.

Deceptively simple, Tout un hiver covers ground both personal and political in its portrayal of a grief-stricken man and woman. He's a Swiss farmer forced to work at a factory to make ends meet; she's a teacher from Kosovo working in the factory's kitchen. Both have experienced profound loss that has cut them off from the worlds they knew, and both are being forced to lean on their strength and postpone their suffering.

Because both are married (albeit to absent spouses) their compassion for each other is naturally frowned upon. But this is a movie primarily about healing, and all opportunities for cheap drama are never indulged.

Despite some strong festival screenings (it won two awards at the Venice Film Festival in 2004), Tout un hiver was not seen much outside Switzerland, which is a shame, as it was one of the best movies I saw last year.

I admit that I am the brother of Greg, yet I want to point out, that I certainly would tell him if he messes something up:-)

Mostly I'd like to comment on this movie to give it rather an inside view of the story it is telling. So the central message of this film is the question how to manage the fact of a terrible loss. On one side we have the main character, a farmer from the swiss jura, that has lost his child in an accident. On the other side we have the two kosovians (brother and sister) who also suffered a terrible loss during the kosovian war and took refuge to Switzerland. Both parties had an extreme encounter with death, yet they react totally different to it. This is the chance for the farmer to learn, that there are other ways to resolve a situation of grief and sorrow.

That's also where he gets cornered between two lives he could chose. On one hand his wife, full of agony, who has to get medical treatment. On the other hand his new kosovian girlfriend that surprises him with her will to live.

Wherever the movie was shown, always one thing surprised me. At the end nobody moved, nobody talked, the people just sat still and remained silent. I guess the ability to absorb an entire audience in such a way is rather extraordinary and deserves a high score, hence 9/10.