Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Winifred
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Die Siebtelbauern" is an Austrian German-language movie from 1998, so it will have its 20th anniversary the year after next year. The writer and director is Stefan Ruzowitzky and this film was selected to be Austria's official submission to the Oscars that year. And even if it did not get the nomination, it is still interesting from the perspective that Ruzowitzky won an Oscar for another submission ("Die Fälscher") several years later. But back to this one here. It features Austrian (because that's Ruzoqitzky's origin) and German actors playing the main characters and quite a few of these are still very well-known today to German film buffs. The story is about a terrible crime that happens, but actually what happens afterward is really the real tragedy, namely the huge challenge for the members of a small community in dealing with the aftermath, especially from an economic perspective. But there are also all kinds of other genres in here such as occasionally dark comedy (coming from the narration mostly) and romance as well. For the actors playing the main characters, it was a bit of a breakthrough work that allowed them to have a career to this date, almost two decades later. But I personally must say that even if the acting was fairly solid for the most part, I never really managed to develop an interest in the story and the characters for the most part. Maybe you need to be Austrian to appreciate it or just like Ruzowizky's style more than I do. I was underwhelmed almost during the entirety of the film and there were not that many moments I would consider good or even memorable at all. This is why I give "The Inheritors" a thumbs-down and I suggest you to watch something else instead.
philippa-4
This film is not about an idealized, bucolic, peaceful country life. Rather it portrays the harsh reality of the feudal system that continued n Europe until well into the 20'th century. Peasants were considered "uppity" if they dared to believe they could be the equal of Farmers, and women were so victimized that a woman reporting her violent rape could be sent to prison for having the audacity to accuse her employer of a crime. In fact, European peasants were in many ways as ill treated as the slaves of the Deep South. I enjoyed this film for its cultural realism and historical value, but the story is quite depressing. I rate it a 7.
glenbot
It's a very sad, but poignant movie.Great story and locale. I thought the casting was excellent and I liked the strong female character Emmy.It's also a great snapshot of life in 19th century rural Austria and dare I say it, class struggle.
dilbert
This film is extremely well paced and beautifully photographed, and the characters are easy to relate to. Seven peasants unexpectedly inherit the farm on which they work after the farmer dies. The neighboring farmers view this as a breach of the rigid class structure in rural 19th century Austria and try to destroy the "One-Seventh Farmers." The tenacity with which the new owners defend their farm (and one another) is very touching. I loved it!
