Sennentuntschi
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
1975, Grison Alps, Switzerland. A young priest is found hanged in a church tower. Shortly after the event, a mysterious girl appears in the village. Due to hostility she flees up into the mountains.
Lonely Alpine herdsmen Erwin and Albert are joined by a third man, Martin. During a long night while being drunk and high on absinthe, Albert makes a doll out of a broom and hay, while Erwin tells Martin the story about Sennentuntschi. In the story, three men make such a doll, while the devil takes pity upon them and makes it come to life. On the next day, an actual girl appears in their lodge. Erwin warns Martin about the ending of the story, in which Sennentuntschi kills all three men, but they both rape her anyway. The girl takes revenge by slaughtering all the goats and killing Erwin, Albert dies in a fire by accident and Martin due to blood poisoning, as he was bitten by the girl during rape.
Meanwhile, in the village, local (older) priest instigates parishioners against the unknown girl, calling her a witch, bearer of evil and responsible for the recent death of a new-born. He supports his theory by a photograph from 1950, showing young woman that resembles the girl. Police officer Reusch is the only one who keeps reason, therefore clashing with the villagers. He attempts to take the girl away, but is ambushed by the villagers. The girl however escapes. Reusch keeps investigating and finds out that the woman from the photograph the girl's mother, who was impregnated by the priest who killed her and kept their daughter in captivity since birth. It is revealed that the young priest did not commit suicide but was killed in a fight during girl's escape. Reusch arrests and imprisons the priest and goes into the mountains, searching for the girl.
Reusch finds the girl alive and well in the lodge, however days after the deadly events. The girl made dolls out of men's skins, just like also told in the fable, which made Reusch sick and angry with her. She runs away with Reusch following her, only to pursue her so far that she falls in a ravine. He goes after her and finds skinned corpses of herdsmen, as well as her body. Feeling responsible he takes his own life.

Review: Classy slow burning Swiss thriller.
It is said (or at least was at the screening attended) that Sennentuntschi is Switzerland's first genre film.
It draws upon a little used myth (I can think of maybe one other film that makes use of it) of lonely Alpine shepherds who sew a lady companion out of straw and cloth.
By and by the lady comes to life, loves them and keeps their home, until she falls out of favours and takes her vengeance.
Things are a bit more complicated than that here though, with a strange and silent lady (Roxanne Mesquida) coming to a village from the mountains and immediately arousing superstitions.
Local inspector Reusch is on her side, but something bad is afoot, and events in the village are parallelled by the affairs of a moutainside shepherd, his son and a city man who joins them.
The film is quite a slow burner, focused on the slowly boiling drama of its characters and the tensions between superstition and reason, religion and modernity, man and woman, primal and tamed.
Set in 1975 when there were still places in the Alps caught in older times, there's a convincing sense of removal from reality and rustic unease, quiet disquiet that works well with the sublime locations, crisply shot by Pascal Walder.
Solid performances across the board give the film an effective dramatic tone, Nicholas Ofczarek giving the character of Reusch a sense of earnest dedication tinged with affecting romantic, longing, Andrea Zogg bringing righteous fire to his powerful priest character and Roxanne Mesquida especially good in her silent role as the rumoured Sennentuntschi, conveying feral grace and danger with an edge of primal humanity.
Things come to a head in nicely intense and fairly shocking fashion with a cruelly punching final block, although a slightly tricksy approach to the narrative dilutes the ultimate effect.
It takes a little too long to really come aflame I think, while things are ultimately satisfying there isn't so much suspense in earlier scenes.
And for all the interesting oppositions the film brings up with its narrative, it doesn't really end up saying anything particularly interesting, though never less than satisfying entertainment its standard genre film mechanics do slightly sap its underlying interest.
Swiss mystery.
It is hard to describe the movie.
Especially because you would be giving away plot points or other very important things about the movie.
What I can say (without having read anything about the story that is being told here) though, is that this is a very intriguing and very well made thriller.
If you didn't know it yet, Switzerland is taking a stand here with a great movie.The story is worth watching and the way it is shown, will give you some extra thrills here and there.
This might very well be a great companion piece to Ketchums "The Woman".
There is more than a little social criticism and other stuff in this movie.
Or you can just be entertained and thrilled, from beginning to end ...
Watched this on Netflix, intrigued by the description about an old folktale.
The film turned out to be somewhat contrary to my expectations, but actually in a good way.Without giving too much away, the film is a slow-burner that moves on multiple time levels.
The flow feels natural, and adds to the mystery, so the chosen narrative approach was a good one.
The film contains none of the modern Hollywoodian jump-scare crap - another top-notch decision by the director and writers.
The main timeline's '70s setting helps to create the slightly skewered atmosphere of the film.The film can be interpreted on several metaphorical levels, but it works well even when just taken as a genre movie.
All in all, I really liked the idea and its execution.
As said, this is a real slow-burner, and the horror primarily comes from the atmosphere and -- well, you should check it out!.
Nice bed time story....
One of the best European movies I have seen, plot wise.
The way how things play out, is quite plausible and understandable.
In-fact all the actors played their characters well.
Kudos to the screenplay and the direction, had me till the very end.
Yes the movie is dark..
Mystery in the Swiss Alps.
This isn't so much a horror movie as mystery.
Which is fine by me as I am actually not a big fan of typical horror and mainly watched it because of the country it is located and made in.Swiss Alps are a beautiful place for some mystery.
The pace of the movie is pretty slow, but it actually fits well to the story and enjoyable.
Some scenes are still too gruesome to watch, but luckily there aren't too many so it doesn't ruin it.
The worst was the goat scene, I won't add spoilers to it.Great acting as well.
Roxane Mesquida is especially impressive since she doesn't have any dialogue but manages to portray so many emotions in a very intense way..
The most boring horror movie I've ever seen.
"Sennentuntschi" is about the most excruciatingly tedious horror movie I have ever watched, and I have seen thousands of horror movies.Nothing of any interest happens in the movie.Even if it did, you probably wouldn't notice, because everything is so drawn out and protracted that you won't be paying attention.The movie seemed to actually "begin" at about the forty five minute mark.
Everything that led up to that was basically irrelevant, or could have been established in about two minutes.There were a couple of head-scratching (or face-palming) moments right at the beginning of the movie, making me think it was going to be bad, but at least entertaining.
In one scene, after a girl says she saw a boy in the wilderness, police show her photos of boys on a computer, and she recognizes the one she saw.
But not as mysterious, perhaps, as the question of why the policeman is showing the girl photos of boys from 30 years ago, since, if they were still alive, they'd all be well into adulthood now, and the photos would be hopelessly outdated.Shortly thereafter, a priest is found hanging by the neck.
The movie is apparently based on an Alpine myth about the Sennentuntschi.
That is what the movie is sort of about.
Awesome Film, Highly Convoluted Ending....
I knew I was going to love this film when the opening scene was a mushroom hunt!
It all begins, when a man, trying to escape the city, heads off to work on a farm in a remote area of the Swiss Alps.He boards with two shepherds- aging man and his mute nephew.And as they start to get acclimated with one another, the older man shows the city boy his secret project- an absinthe distillery.They start to get totally wasted on absinthe on a nightly basis.
Until, one night, they decide they need a woman...and there's only way to do that.
At least, so goes the old legend...Three lonely shepherds use a broom, straw, and rags to make the woman of their dreams.
And the devil takes pity on them, by bringing her to life.
The three men use her to cook, clean, and for their own sexual pleasure...until she takes revenge on them by skinning them alive, and making dolls from their bodies.The three men do successfully manage to conjure a Sennentuntschi.
And the two older men, quickly start raping her...in increasingly violent fashion.Until she snaps and kills all their goats...skinning them alive.
Striking fear into the men's hearts.And considering this film is non-linear in nature.
Where we are following a police officer from the local village, as he investigates the discovery of a mute woman who wanders into town.
He is trying to find out who she exactly is, and where she came from.And this all culminates in one of the most confusing and convoluted endings I've EVER seen.
There is so much sh*t going on at the end...timelines converging; assumptions being made; ruses playing out; and a(albeit foreshadowed) twist that gives the Belgians and French a run for their money...before another, final twist, that is a bit more cliché (but gets you thinking).
Even when it's all over with, you are still kind of confused because there is just way too much to take in, packed into a tiny timeframe...it's almost impossible to fully comprehend.The whole part with the priest and girl having a daughter didn't make much sense to me at all...it totally comes out of the blue and smacks you in the face.They should have just scrapped that part of the ending for the sake of flow and understandability.But, even with these flaws, this film is pretty awesome!
I would still recommend it, just be prepared to pay full attention at the end, or risk missing something and being confused as all f*ck.7.5 out of 10..
Surprisingly powerful Swiss bloodcurdler..
The Swiss are hardly noted for their thriving film industry, but viewers shouldn't let that affect their pre-conceptions about Sennentuntschi: Curse Of The Alps.
This wonderfully atmospheric chiller from Swiss director Michael Steiner manages to be a real surprise.
Steiner takes a piece of ancient Alpine folklore and fashions it into an absorbing 1970s-set thriller, boosted in no small part by its vast, lonely mountain locale, as well as a clutch of memorable performances by the main actors.The story moves – perhaps too ambitiously – along three fronts.
It opens in the present with an intriguing sequence in which a young girl uncovers a long-lost corpse in alpine woodland, guided to its resting place by a ghostly apparition.
The second segment shows a long flashback describing a series of unnerving events which brought fear and superstition to the region in 1975.
Following the shocking suicide of a priest in a remote Swiss community, the villagers suddenly find their superstitions brought to a head when a young mute girl (Roxanne Mesquida) turns up.
Everyone assumes that her inexplicable appearance is somehow connected to the priest's death, except for village cop Sebastian Reusch (Nicholas Ofczarek) who isn't prepared to explain away the puzzling mystery with talk of ghosts and ghouls.
The locals express concern that something may also have happened to a trio of herdsmen who live and work high on the mountain behind their village, and urge Reusch to go up to make sure they are safe and well.
Reusch simply assumes they are out hunting and returns to the village.
The third thread of the story, presented as a flashback within a flashback, recounts the story of the three shepherds (Carlos Leal, Andrea Zogg and Joel Basman).
Drunk, lonely and frustrated, their decision to make a 'Sennentuntschi' (a woman of straw, given life by the devil) has grave consequences for everyone.Steiner skilfully blurs the chronology of his story, creating a fragmentary narrative which keeps audiences guessing right to the very end.
This disjointed rearrangement of narrative and time threatens to become irritating in the early stages, but Steiner quickly wins over the audience with his uniquely unsettling style.
Mystery is piled upon mystery, intrigue upon intrigue, drawing the viewer into a labyrinth of perverted fairy-tale and superstitious frenzy The performances are pitch-perfect, with Mesquida in particular giving a riveting turn as the titular creature.
Her wordless portrayal of the 'Sennentuntschi' is absolutely central to the success of the whole film, and she is, in a word, excellent.
Ofczarek, Leal, Zogg and Basman all add memorable characterisations of their own, while Ueli Jaeggi rounds things off impressively as a fanatical priest with murky ulterior motives.
Sennentuntschi: Curse Of The Alps is a beautiful-looking, cleverly crafted horror film with much to admire.
If it is indicative of the future of Swiss movie-making, then audiences have a lot of good stuff to look forward to!.
Best swiss movie in a long time.
I went to see this movie in cinema yesterday.
We didn't have high expectations because Swiss movies are usually not as good as I'd like them to be.
This movie was different, all the actors did a great job, especially R.
Zogg, who played some of the main parts were very convincing and the perfect cast for this role.
The story was very mysterious in the beginning, the images of the mountains and landscapes were breathtaking and really stunning.
Some scenes were quiet brutal and rude, but never tasteless or offending, and even though the movie had that mysterious touch in the beginning, even supernatural, it all turns out to be logical and not unreal in the ending.
The shooting location, a small village in the mountains of Grischuna was perfect, romantic but not kitsch, it shows the real Switzerland, outside of the big cities and everything about traditions and lifestyle of the people was really accurate.
The only disadvantage was for me, that sometimes it wasn't quiet clear when certain things happened, like back-flashes or present shots, it wasn't pointed out when what happened.
But all in all I am proud of my country, releasing such a great movie I've never expected, I can give it a 9 star rating.
I can only recommend this movie to you out there, its worth it..
Keeps you interested till the end, but a little bit confusing.
Isolated village in Swiss Alps is perfect scenery for a good thriller.
This one starts good, but to the end, it gets more and more confusing.
I get the general idea what happened, but for movie to be a good (and for me to like it) you need to explain all details (like those three corpses at the end, whose are they ?
It's like, for a smallest things they start shooting at each other.
There's a fair amount of violence that I don't mind, but I figure others might dislike.On technical note, other from confusing but still decent directing/editing - acting and sound/music are good.
I also appreciate that there's nothing fantasy/supernatural in the story (well, almost nothing, who's that kid with the mirror at the beginning ?
One more unexplained detail), just a plain crime/mystery/thriller.
My final mark is above average, it kept me tied to chair from start to end.
This movie could have been a masterpiece if the ending did not ruin it all...
I was highly excited while watching this movie.
The acting was not exceptional but quite good!
The scenario seemed to be metaphorical about people that the politically correct society considers as being evil, but in reality things are not really as they seem.
The director seemed to try to communicate the idea that there is always something hiding behind people who seem to behave evil and act eccentric.
I liked this whole idea.
The movie ending ruined it all.
It just turned out to be a conventional shallow horror movie with nothing more to say.
The end titles, spoilt the film even more.
The ending rock song music was mimicking (the usually shallow) Hollywood horror movie endings.
What has society come to....
I think this is a sick movie (and no, I am not a sensitive viewer) but really, if the exploitation of females must be portrayed, rather "imply" it, but don't show it - we see enough violence and crime and rape (especially where I live) so why do we need more of it for "entertainment" sake?
On a more positive note, the movie was well made from a Swiss town and alp-life point of view - very realistic and I think it could have been brilliant if just portrayed in a slightly different light while still maintaining the impact.All in all, a disturbing movie.
"Sennentuntschi" is a Swiss movie from 5 years ago and certainly one of the most famous film in recent history from the country of neutrality.
Maybe because it is a horror mystery movie which is not too frequent for the German-language areas.
Then again, I should be careful saying German as the Swiss accents in here are so heavy that you will not understand the dialogs even as a German native speaker.
The film got some awards recognition, especially at the Swiss Film awards and it has a bunch of experienced actors in it who all do a fairly good job.
One of these is Joel Basman, who just won a German Film Award very recently.
The female lead and at the same time the only female character which plays a bigger role in this film is played by Roxane Mesquida.
She is really stunning and was a nice choice for the character of Sennentuntschi.
She plays a young woman who shows up at a Swiss village and she seems to lack basic human abilities such as speaking for example.
But that is also what makes her so appealing to the men of this village, apart from her looks of course.
It is the fact that she is so different.Still, at the same time, there are always suspicions that she may be evil, a witch possibly or even the devil personified.
The solution comes at the end.
Until then, she gets raped by several men of the village, but thanks to a police officer who takes somehow care of her she does not get killed.
Also, she is accused of being responsible for the death of several people and also maybe turns some of the village people against each other.
As a whole, it was a fairly mediocre film.
It definitely has a couple pretty good moments, but none of these were really great enough to let me recommend this films.
I wish Michael Steiner, who wrote and directed it, could have kept it a bit more essential at 90 minutes max instead of 110.
There were really quite a few scenes that added totally nothing for me.
What I did like was the whole setting.
The nature added some really nice atmosphere to it.
But still, there are just too many uninteresting factors about this film in my opinion.
Only give it a watch if you are really into horror/mystery pieces.