157 minute running time, which I’d normally say is an hour too long, but I loved this movie so it gets a pass. This was even better than The Wild Pear Tree, which led me to this movie (same director). This is a deep movie, very cerebral, 99.99% of the viewing public couldn’t possibly sit through it. It’s a movie only for special people like me and … you?
SPOILERS: Let me explain the ending. The doctor, who represented science and logic and rationality, did not include the fact that the murder victim had been buried alive in the autopsy report because he wanted to spare the child, the murderer’s son, the full truth about his father’s crime. It was horrible enough as it was and didn’t need the added indignity that he had buried a man alive. After a long night and many conversations, he understood that it’s sometimes better to hide the truth. It’s the children who suffer most from their parents’ crimes. People of the present suffer the sins committed by those in the past. Who writes history?
The fleck of blood on the doctor’s cheek represents his being sullied, being stained … he’s human now and making choices which humans make, for good or ill. The last line is: “Doctor, step back a bit, or you’ll get stuff on you.” Too late for that!
The screencap below is of the village mayor’s beautiful teenage daughter who serves them tea and causes each man to stop in wonder and astonishment … it’s a religious moment … she’s like a vision and in fact moves the murderer to hallucinate that his victim is there among them and makes him weep and shortly after confess more details about the crime.
It’s a great, great movie.
