This is an intense, poetic and unfairly critizised experimental masterpiece on all levels. The images of a child going down a slide and of a surviving dachshund (Is he crying? For us?) are emblematic for the film as a whole.
They are documents of the director's heartbreaking tenderness and his compassion for both the perpetrator and his victims. We (as the powerless audience) have to witness this nightmare of atrocities, delusions, the loneliness and desperation.
The weightless camera work (Zbigniew Rybczyński), the music by Klaus Schulze, the editing and the voice-over are flawless. Not to speak of the ultra nuanced acting by Erwin Leder.
If you allow some comparisons to this uniqueness it would be: Robert Bresson's "L'argent" (1983), Gaspard Noé's "Seul contre tous"(1988) and maybe Krzysztof Kieslowski's "A Short Film About Killing"(1988).
It is at times hard to watch, but it is a deeply rewarding experience since it uses its medium on breathtakingly daring levels of virtuosity. Keep in mind that this is a first feature film.
