Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 30, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Following its acclaimed world premiere at the Berlinale, the third film adaptation of a cult novel by Wolf Haas, directed by Wolfgang Murnberger, reached the screen. With a little luck, you can now bring home the film, distributed by Majestic Home Entertainment.
Star cabaret artist Josef Hader has long since become the embodiment of the laconic private detective Brenner, whose gruesome, gag-filled adventures make for a special home-cinema experience. Brenner’s congenial screen companion Berti (Simon Schwarz) returns, joined by an outstanding cast ranging from Sepp Bierbichler to Silver Bear winner Birgit Minichmayr.
The successful Haas/Murnberger/Hader trio created an Austro-Fargo with THE BONE MAN in which the viewer’s laughter almost sticks in the throat …
The BONE MAN DVD contains more than 60 minutes of extensive bonus material (including a making-of, deleted scenes, an audio commentary by Josef Hader and Wolfgang Murnberger, a featurette about the 2009 Berlinale and a concert recording by cult band Sofa Surfers).
Plot:
Now it has happened again… A man named Horvath has disappeared. The latest leasing instalments for his car have not been paid. Reluctantly, Brenner accepts the meagre assignment from his old friend Berti to persuade the delinquent payer to settle his debt or return Horvath’s leased car, and sets off on the long journey into the deepest, snow-covered Austrian provinces.
It leads him straight to the “Löschenkohl,” a fried-chicken restaurant of legendary reputation.
Thousands of chickens must lose their lives each week to be breaded until crisp and gnawed down to the bone here. A bone-meal machine grinds the chicken remains into feed meal for the next generation of chickens. A cannibalistic cycle of eating and being eaten. Just after arriving, a brief glimpse of the leased car is all Brenner sees of Horvath. Immediately afterwards, the car vanishes just as completely as its owner.
But Brenner’s detective skills are also required elsewhere: the proprietor’s son wants his help to discover at last what happens to all the money the old proprietor takes from the business every week. A little “cross-border traffic” and similarly human matters play an important role. This additional assignment suits Brenner well, as he is beginning to fall in love with the attractive Birgit, the head chef—and the junior proprietor’s wife.
And, as bewitched as he is by Birgit, his mind almost fails him. Brenner notices almost too late that a human bone has become mixed in with the chicken bones. While the masked ball rages in the fried-chicken restaurant’s hall and the entire village, protected by masks, really lets itself go, love and murder unfold in the cellar. Once again, Berti proves to be Brenner’s saving guardian angel …
Further Links:
- Film website
Go to the reader survey here