How do you deal with a loved one suddenly no longer being the same, even developing pathological traits? Marco (Simon Wisler), the newcomer who turns up one day in a Swiss mountain village, seems like a man who can't be knocked over so easily. Even if he seems a little melancholy and prefers iced tea to beer at the regulars' table.
Muscle-bound and as stoic as a bull, Marco gets to work on the mountain pasture and with old mountain farmer Alois' herd of cows. Down in the village pub works Anna (Michèle Brand), mother of a young daughter, who falls in love with the taciturn man. Anna and Marco's love is very gentle, beautiful and natural. They marry and can hardly believe their happiness.
Then Marco's increasing outbursts repeatedly interfere with their happiness. A brain tumor is diagnosed. Marco doesn't want to die. Nobody wants to let him down. “What is Love?”, Haddaway's repeatedly repeated Eurotrash song, becomes the film's question as to whether love survives illness and decay, while fate takes on the traits of a Greek tragedy...
“Sometimes, rarely, there is such a thing: a movie that creates its own cinematic genre on the screen, lonely and incomparable. (...) “Three Winters” is a monolith.” (Katja Nicodemus, in: Die Zeit)
“In “Drei Winter”, human soulscapes are reflected everywhere in nature: in the rugged mountains as well as in the farm animals in the high-altitude Swiss village. Michael Koch's film is full of metaphors, in the best sense of the word. [...]
Koch narrates his elliptical film according to his own script in puritanical conditions and measures transience in this often inhuman space. The wind whistles across the plain, the work on the mountain is hard, God is not for everyone and certainly not Marco's salvation. But as harsh as the environment may be, as strict as the staging may be, there is an incredible tenderness in this film. Anna (played magnificently by Michèle Brand in her first role), this strong woman, doesn't want to give up on Marco completely, like a farmer giving up on a cow that is no longer pregnant.
“Three Winters” is certainly a challenge, but one that pays off. The film is further proof of Switzerland's currently very strong artistic film industry.” (Jens Balkenborg, on epd-film.de)
How do you deal with a loved one suddenly no longer being the same, even developing pathological traits? Marco (Simon Wisler), the newcomer who turns up one day in a Swiss mountain village, seems like a man who can't be knocked over so easily. Even if he seems a little melancholy and prefers iced tea to beer at the regulars' table.
Muscle-bound and as stoic as a bull, Marco gets to work on the mountain pasture and with old mountain farmer Alois' herd of cows. Down in the village pub works Anna (Michèle Brand), mother of a young daughter, who falls in love with the taciturn man. Anna and Marco's love is very gentle, beautiful and natural. They marry and can hardly believe their happiness.
Then Marco's increasing outbursts repeatedly interfere with their happiness. A brain tumor is diagnosed. Marco doesn't want to die. Nobody wants to let him down. “What is Love?”, Haddaway's repeatedly repeated Eurotrash song, becomes the film's question as to whether love survives illness and decay, while fate takes on the traits of a Greek tragedy...
“Sometimes, rarely, there is such a thing: a movie that creates its own cinematic genre on the screen, lonely and incomparable. (...) “Three Winters” is a monolith.” (Katja Nicodemus, in: Die Zeit)
“In “Drei Winter”, human soulscapes are reflected everywhere in nature: in the rugged mountains as well as in the farm animals in the high-altitude Swiss village. Michael Koch's film is full of metaphors, in the best sense of the word. [...]
Koch narrates his elliptical film according to his own script in puritanical conditions and measures transience in this often inhuman space. The wind whistles across the plain, the work on the mountain is hard, God is not for everyone and certainly not Marco's salvation. But as harsh as the environment may be, as strict as the staging may be, there is an incredible tenderness in this film. Anna (played magnificently by Michèle Brand in her first role), this strong woman, doesn't want to give up on Marco completely, like a farmer giving up on a cow that is no longer pregnant.
“Three Winters” is certainly a challenge, but one that pays off. The film is further proof of Switzerland's currently very strong artistic film industry.” (Jens Balkenborg, on epd-film.de)