Sennentuntschi: Curse of the Alps
Switzerland, 2010, 110 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Crime, Cult, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Programs: Contemporary World Cinema, The Watching Hour
Language: Swiss-German English Sub-Titles
High in the Swiss Alps, a thirty-year-old murder mystery unfolds. While picking mushrooms, a little girl sees a strange boy, shining a mirror for her to uncover a skeleton under the fungi. When the police determine the boy went missing in 1975, the sordid tale of Sennentuntschi unfolds.
Michael Steiner's thriller opens with the traumatizing discovery of a priest hanging from the rafters of his church in a quiet mountain village. At his funeral procession, a mysterious, mute woman appears. The townspeople jump to the conclusion that she is responsible for his death, determining the woman must have wandered down from Mt. Thistle, where a resident shepherd and son have not been heard from in some time. Local police officer Sebastian Reusch is on the case—but he is unprepared for the dark secrets soon to be uncovered.
Passed down among mountain dwellers, the legend of Sennentuntschi involves three herdsmen, who, lonely in the mountains, make the woman of their dreams out of a broom, straw, and rags. The devil takes pity on them and turns the doll into a real woman. She cooks and cleans, and at night the herdsmen have their way with her. But when she has had enough, she takes her revenge, brutally murdering all three. Of course, this is an old wives’ tale. Or is it?
—MATTHEW CAMPBELL
Sponsored by Argonaut Wine & Liquor and Basil Doc's Pizza
(Unsubtitled trailer)
DIRECTOR: Michael Steiner
Producer: Bernhard Burgener, John Lueftner, Hans G. Syz, This Brunner, Simone Häberling
Editor: Benjamin Fueter
Screenwriter: Michael Sauter, Michael Steiner, Stephanie Japp
Cinematographer: Pascal Walder
Principal Cast: Roxane Mesquida, Nicholas Ofczarek, Andrea Zogg, Carlos Leal, Joel Basman, Ueli Jäggi
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