Der amerikanische Filmkritiker Dr. Les K. Wright hat in San Francisco „Bergblut“ gesehen und lobt ihn in höchsten Tönen als packenden, vielschichtigen Film mit historischem Anspruch:
(…) In fact, Mountain Blood is a variant of the German genre film known as the Heimatfilm. Popular in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria during the post-war era, roughly the late 1940s through the 1970s, the Heimat („homeland“) film is set in the country, typically in the forested mountains, foregrounding the virtues of rural living. Loyalties of family, friendship, and romantic love are played out in a sentimental manner, against a backdrop of simplified morality. Blood Mountain is no Gone with the Wind, however. The family dynamics between Franz and his brothers is complex, as is Katharina’s relationship with both womenfolk and men folk in her husband’s family. In the typical Heimatfilm, the „good guy“ wins the affection of his heart’s desire. Her life’s tale is of Jobian proportions.
There is another, historical layer to this film. This family drama is playing out within the context of the Tiroler Volksaufstand (Tyrolean Rebellion of 1809). The local village butcher is a man by the name of Andres Hofer. Hofer is constantly stirring up the local peasants to resist Napoleon’s approaching troops, who threaten to rush in from Bavaria to the north. To them, Katharina embodies the despised Bavarian collaboration with the French. The Tyroleans are nothing if not defiantly proud and independent-minded people. Much of the film alternates between the private fortunes of Franz and his brothers, and the skirmishes and battles led by Hofer against the French. Against all odds, Katharina seems to win the respect of the Tyroleans, and Hofer quixotically succeeds against the French and Bavarian invaders.
Every German school kid, and many an American history buff, knows the ultimate outcome of the peasants‘ uprising. The Heimatfilm buff may take pleasure in the maturation of the genre as exemplified in this film. And it should be noted that this is one of two recent films made in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Tiroler Volksaufstand. (Der Rebell, a 1923 film by Luis Trenker, was the first to deal with this subject matter.) Katharina is more devious, and certainly far more complex, than Scarlett O’Hara. And the anti-French seeds Napoleon sowed in Central Europe would bear much more problematic fruit for the world than what the American Civil War wrought.
This is riveting drama, even if you know the history. The actors are thoroughly commensurate to their roles, though subtlety is lost in the translation. And above all, it is a very beautiful film (shot on original locations), for it is ultimately an homage to what it took to be a Tyrolean-poor, pious, rugged, hard-working, proud yet humble, and willing to die for one’s country. This sort of story has proven a challenge to German filmmakers in the wake of the legacy of Hitler, and film director Pamer handles it magnificently.
Dr. Les K Wright, CultureVulture
