The
death of Ötzi the Iceman is not a complete mystery. The arrowhead that
shattered his scapula definitely constitutes a clue. Since he clearly did not
die of natural causes, it rather makes sense that rumors of a curse would
surround his well-preserved 5,300-year-old corpse. Most mummies have them. The
mysterious man from the Copper Age finally gets a fictionalized backstory in
Felix Randau’s Iceman, which opens
today in New York.
As
a mummy, he was dubbed Ötzi, but to his people, he was a clan leader named
Kelab. Iceman is sort of like a Mel
Gibson movie, because Kelab and his contemporaries speak an early forerunner of
the Rhaetic language, but nobody bothered to translate subtitles. It is assumed
viewers can pick up everything they need from the dramatic context, as indeed
they should.
Life
is already hard for Kelab, especially after the small clan’s other woman dies
in childbirth, but he and his mate are happy to adopt the surviving infant. Alas,
things take a bitterly tragic turn when a rival tribe launches a sneak attack
massacre, while Kelab is out hunting. Thanks to his biological son’s bravery,
the newborn survives. Of course, Kelab will protect him at all costs, but he is
even more interested in extracting some cold, snowy payback.
For
the most part, there are two kinds of prehistoric narrative movies. More
commonly, you get cheesy corn, like Raquel Welch and her pelt bikini in One Million Years B.C., but occasionally
there is a serious, anthropologically ambitious film like Quest for Fire. Somehow, Iceman
manages to chart its own middle course between the two poles. It is a
moody, scrupulously researched and carefully realized story that is basically a
revenge drama set in the year 3,300 BC—like Death
Wish in the Ötzal Alps
As
Kelab, Jürgen Vogel is a lean, wiry picture of survival. He is so tough and
scrawny, even the saber-toothed tigers would not want to eat him. As usual,
André Hennicke is cold and creepy as Krant, the leader of the raiding party.
However, if you really want your mind blown, wait until Franco Nero pops up as
a literal graybeard Kelab meets on the road, while tracking Krant and company.