Waidmannsdank

Waidmannsdank (2020) is an Austrian movie made for TV and promoted as a film belonging to the crime-mystery genre. The director is Daniel Prochaska. The story takes place in a village in the Austrian Alps and focuses on a small group of middle-aged men who gather in a bar-restaurant for socializing and drinking. Some of them particularly share quarrels against each other due to past events. The story starts with the death of one of them in what seemed to be an accident but having characteristics that could suggest a crime. The local police (composed by two police officers, a woman and a man) start investigating and an inspector from a larger town is sent to the village for helping with the investigation. Unfortunately, by trying to stick to a very confusing and lacking cohesion script, the group of actors seems to be lost throughout the whole film. The only good thing about this film is that it is quite short (approximately 1.5 hours) and some of the landscapes are quite interesting.

I watched this TV-movie by accident. I was looking for another murder mystery and this one popped up, so I watched it.

The title in English translates to something like 'Good Hunting'. Sorry if I got it wrong, I don't speak German. The movie is in German but has English sub-titles. The storyline is about a hunting club in a small mountain town struggling to survive its isolation. Everyone knows everyone, and some yearn to leave. But there is a murderer afoot. A big city detective (Pia Hierzegger) arrives to take over the case. Will she catch the murderer before they strike again? No spoilers. The plot is good. The production values are very good (especially for a TV movie). The acting is also very good. It is rather short at 88 minutes (TV) and could have used more character development. I wanted to know more about the lives of these people and their town. I wish I understood German so I could follow the dialog better. Pia Hierzegger also wrote the screenplay. She is talented. I hope I have more happy accidents and see movies from outside the USA.