''Alpine Fire'' (german: Höhenfeuer) is a 1985 Swiss
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Fredi M. Murer
Fredi M. Murer (born 1 October 1940) is a Swiss filmmaker.
Life and work
Murer was born Alfred Melchior Murer in Beckenried, Switzerland. He grew up in Altdorf and went to university in Zurich, where he studied drawing and photography.
He b ...
. It won the
Golden Leopard
The Golden Leopard () is the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, an international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Directors in the process of getting an international reputation are allowed to be ...
at the 1985
Locarno International Film Festival
The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...
. The film was selected as the Swiss entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
58th Academy Awards
The 58th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 1986, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. Durin ...
, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Plot
A year on an Alpine farm: an older couple have two children, Belli, who wanted to be a teacher until her father pulled her out of school, and the younger Bub, who is deaf and, although he works like a man, mentally childlike. Belli teaches him as the work his father asks him to do on the farm limits his ability to go to school. Part of his work is quarrying stones to build walls.
In high summer, Bub becomes frustrated when a power mower stops working and throws it over a cliff. Fleeing his father's anger, he takes to sleeping away from the house while continuing to break rocks.
Belli visits him and they sleep together. By winter, the boy is back in the house and Belli is pregnant. Soon their parents must know.
Cast
*
Thomas Nock as Bub
*
Johanna Lier as Belli
*
Dorthea Moritz as Mom
*
Rolf Illig Rolf is a male given name and a surname. It originates in the Germanic name ''Hrolf'', itself a contraction of ''Hrodwulf'' ( Rudolf), a conjunction of the stem words ''hrod'' ("renown") + ''wulf'' ("wolf"). The Old Norse cognate is ''Hrólfr''. ...
as Father
Reception
It won the
Golden Leopard
The Golden Leopard () is the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, an international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Directors in the process of getting an international reputation are allowed to be ...
at the 1985
Locarno International Film Festival
The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...
.
See also
*
List of submissions to the 58th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
*
References
External links
*
1985 films
1985 drama films
Swiss drama films
Swiss German-language films
Incest in film
Films set in the Alps
Golden Leopard winners
Films about siblings
{{Switzerland-film-stub