In 1991, the 5,300-year-old remains of a man were found in the Alps. Entombed in ice, “Ötzi’’ was declared Europe’s oldest mummy. This joyless dramatisation of his last days imagines how the arrowhead in his shoulder that likely killed him got there. Though the dialogue is in the ancient language of Rhaetian, a title card smugly insists “translation is not required to understand this story”. Thus, there are no subtitles.
While this quirk fails to add intrigue, given the straightforward nature of the tale it’s not a problem. Ötzi, AKA Kelab (Jürgen Vogel), returns from a hunt to discover his village in flames and his people, including girlfriend Kisis (Susanne Wuest), raped and/or brutally slain. Only a newborn baby remains, and so, child in tow, he sets off to track down the perpetrators. It’s unclear whether he’s motivated by vengeance or the desire to recover a mysterious, apparently sacred wooden box (whose contents, even when revealed at the end of the film, remain a befuddling enigma).
The tone flits between revenge thriller and against-the-elements survival movie, but commits to neither. Still, cinematographer Jakub Bejnarowicz keeps the camera agile and curious, tilting and twisting to frame Kelab as he squeezes through icy crevasses, dwarfed by the vast, vertiginous landscape.
