Digging deep into the past of his own family for the second time (after making his childhood years the inspirational hit of Berlinale, “The Best of All Worlds”, 2017), Austrian director Helmer Adrian Goiginger presents a manifesto of humanism in this drama from the most inhumane episode of history so far: the second world war.

This is the true story of Franz Streitberger, Adrian Goigingers’ great grandfather. At the beginning of the war, an introverted young soldier finds a wounded fox cub whom he looks after like it was his own child and takes along to occupied France. Through this strange friendship with the animal, his own past from which he has always run away slowly catches up with him.

When not concentrating on the faces of its protagonists, the colossal imagery shows burnt vehicles and vast landscapes, a void that is of course a symbolic one. This sense of brutalised times, of being forced into conflict, feels more than topical again.

This simple soldier’s tale and his encounter with nature, as well as his inherent pacifism uses spectacular imagery to convey the urgently needed message of peace.

Christoph Gröner