Iceman (2017 film)
Iceman (German: Der Mann aus dem Eis) is a 2017 German-Italian-Austrian adventure drama film written and directed by Felix Randau. It is a fictional story about the life of Ötzi, a natural mummy of a man discovered on 19 September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps. The film, which was filmed in the Tyrolean and Bavarian Alps, features almost no dialogue, with a minimal amount in untranslated Rhaetian. Plot. In the Ötztal Alps, more than 5300 years ago, a Neolithic clan has settled near a creek. It is their leader Kelab's responsibility to be the  keeper of the group’s holy shrine, Tineka, contained in a wooden box. While Kelab is hunting, the settlement is attacked. The attackers are searching for the shrine of Tineka. They find the shrine and take it. The members of the tribe are brutally murdered, amongst them Kelab’s Wife and son, the only survivor is a newborn baby. Blinded by pain and fury, Kelab is out for one thing alone – vengeance. He sets out after the murderers on a trek through the Alps bringing with him the newborn baby and a goat for its milk to feed the baby . He comes across a group of three men and kills two of them before realizing these are not the persons who attacked his village. He decides to let the third man go. He continues on. The man who he decided not to kill tries to follow him and to travel with him but Kelab instructs him to not follow him. He next meets an old man and a younger woman. They allow him to stay with them for the night and feed him by the campfire. At night, the younger woman comes to him to have sex but he rebuffs  her advances. The next day he continues on his travels but he leaves the newborn baby and goat behind with the old man and woman. He catches up to the three attackers but the attackers are higher on the mountain and shoot arrows down at him. The arrows miss but one of the attackers falls off a cliff. Kelab approaches the dead body and gouges out his eyes while screaming his dead wife and son's names. The remaining two attackers get away. Kelab pursues them high into the snowy Alps. He finally comes close to them and charges them  both but falls into a crevasse. He survives the fall and he tries to climb out of the crevasse but he is unable. After some period of time in the crevasse, a rope is thrown down to him and he is able to climb out. It is the man who he had decided to not kill who has helped him. This man looks at him and then moves on. Kelab's travels turn into a grand odyssey where he must fight constantly – for the infant’s survival; against the immense forces of nature; against hunters he encounters; and, amongst the  loneliness of the quest, against a growing sense of doubt over the morality of his mission. Reception. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 22 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 6.12 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A prehistoric drama with the heart of a western, Iceman uses classic archetypes – and deft direction – to tell a stark and simple yet powerfully effective story." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 52 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Iceman (2017