A Damn Fine Cup of Culture

I’ve got nothing against a good blockbuster – some time ago, I sang the praises of Mad Max: Fury Road, and so I am itching to go see Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. And I have seen almost everything there is to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Basel exhibition, thanks to my favorite daughter. But there are some unsung gems out there that only I and three or four others know about. I think I’ve written about Lake Mungo more than once, so that one is no longer an obscure indie film since it crops up on many 12 horror gems you’ve never seen before! lists.

There is a little known war horror flick called Sauna (2008), which sounds like a frolicking nudie comedy in the snow, but it is anything but. The decades-old war between Russia and Sweden has ended, and a troop of exhausted, disillusioned soldiers have to come to terms with their crimes towards the villagers in a very rural, muddy, colorless landscape, while negotiating the post-war border. The Finnish movie has aspects of Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979), but also of Aleksey German’s Hard to Be a God (2013). The reason that I like it so much is that it is so slow and yet relentless in its narration. Now and then, I like to go to the borders of what cinema can actually do, and Sauna, while far from experimental, prepares you for the ultimate dénouement. It’s only 83 minutes, but it builds its way to its climax without flinching. There is always the possibility to opt out, but as Stephen King said, you want a peek of what’s under the shroud. It is similar to the ending of Waltz with Bashir (2008), with its horrors waiting for you at the end.

On a much savage note, there is the German series called Der Fahnder (1984-2005), which roughly translates into investigator. Klaus Wennemann, whom you may know from a much better known movie called Das Boot, plays Faber, a police officer tasked with rounding up the bad guys and girls, and it’s not always clear on which side of the law he will find himself. I liked it for its grittiness and for its quick-witted dialogues. Faber’s job is just not glamorous; his world is the seedy underbelly of a fictional city, but it was filmed in the less affluent quarters of Munich. There are also his long-suffering boss, his beat-cop wheeler-dealer colleague, and his straight-arrow partner. And let’s not forget his no-nonsense girlfriend Susanne. I could not tell you Faber’s first name because everyone always called him by his family name. It’s a shame that the series is no longer available, although I have not checked streaming services for it. After Wennemann quit in 1993, they tried it with another actor, but series pretty much collapsed without its charismatic centre.

Of course people my age will remember the series, but since TV has been inundated with series good and bad in the last 30 years, some really good series have been gone and almost forgotten. Some have not aged well, and that may be the case with Der Fahnder, but it is fast-paced, with a stubborn, unconventional cop at its center, and an array of supporting actors that I still remember. It’s also very low on any actual violence so that it was on TV around dinnertime once a week. Faber gets the job done, holding up the law while disregarding it at the same time.