Fantastic Fest 2009: ‘Krabat’ Review

Let’s play a quick game of word association.  ‘Harry Potter’ is to ‘Krabat’ as Britain is to Germany.  You can see that when comparing the jovial, almost apologetic stylings of ‘Harry Potter’ against the hard melancholy that dominates ‘Krabat,’ the new adaptation of the 1971 novel from director Marco Kreuzpaintner.  ‘Krabat’ is a film grounded within a sense of reality, and Kreuzpaintner’s dominance in filmmaking brings the mixture of real settings and character arcs and the fantastical ideas of black magic into a film that succeeds in several areas where many of the ‘Harry Potter’ films simply could not.

David Kross of ‘The Reader’ plays Krabat, a boy who wanders with his friends in the countryside of a Germany near the end of the Thirty Years’ War.  Hearing a calling from a distance, one that tells him he is special, Krabat leaves his friends and comes upon a mill.  There, he meets a sorcerer, played by Christian Redl, and eleven boys led by Tonda, played by ‘Inglourious Basterds’s Daniel Bruhl.  Krabat and the boys, under the tutelage of the sorcerer, learn the black arts.  However, Krabat soon realizes that there are more sinister goings on at the mill involving the sorcerer and his “rules” for keeping the boys in line.

What Kreuzpaintner has concocted is a slow-moving magic missile of a film, that takes its time going from point A to point B.   This allows us to grow familiar with each and every one of the boys.   This is something that is difficult to do when a director is handling only a few, major characters.   Here, Kreuzpaintner handles over a dozen without any noticable effort.   Of course, Krabat, the sorcerer, and Tonda are our major characters, but each one of the boys is his own character.   It doesn’t take much in the way of plot progression for us to turn our attentions towards any one of them at any given moment.

Kreuzpaintner handles the setting with equal care.   Not much takes place outside of the mill, and that single location almost becomes a character unto itself.

Don’t think, though, that, because the film moves slow doesn’t mean very little happens.   The film is right at two hours, but it feels like a Tolkien epic with all that the screenwriters, Kreuzpaintner and Michael Gutmann, have packed into the film.   Not having read the original novel the film is based on, I am unsure what was taken out and what was injected to create the film.   It amazes me, then, to learn that Otfried Preubler’s novel was under 300 pages in length, and that Kreuzpaintner and Gutmann have brilliantly turned that novel into a film that has so much in such an average running time.

Unfortunately, ‘Krabat’ is not a perfect film, and much of where it falters is in the usage and execution of its special effects.   This is a film about wizards, mind you, and what would a film without wizards be without computer effects?   It is a shame that the level of precision in the film’s CG comes nowhere near that of the handling of the rest of the film.   A scene involving two of the boys walking along the countryside as “ghosts” isn’t handled nearly as well as it was nearly 30 years ago with ‘Empire Strikes Back.’   Without giving much away, too, the end scene could have worked to much more effect without the inclusion of a giant explosion.   The film, the ending, to be more precise, has a hold on you up until that moment, at which point you ask out loud, “Really?   Was that truly necessary?”   In a word, “No,” it wasn’t necessary, and it very nearly leaves a chintzy taste in your mouth after being engrossed for such a long period of time.

All of the acting, however, is, indeed, on the same level as the film’s story, pacing, and direction.   Kross and Bruhl are amazing, and it’s no wonder they are already beginning their ascent up the ranks of actors in both German and American films alike.   Redl is perfect as the wizard, almost disguising himself continuously throughout the movie even without the aid of the makeup effects.   Sometimes he looks like Gerard Depardiu.   Other times he looks like Terry O’Quinn.   Regardless of Cyrano or Locke, Redl always brings the best amount of sinisterness to the character, and he truly makes it his own.   It is such a cliche to say that he would be the perfect choice for a Bond villain, but the shoe definitely laces up perfectly on this one.

All in all, ‘Krabat’ is an incredible take on the “wizard” movie.   More realistic than the films of ‘Harry Potter,’ it does a wonderful job where other films that try to be too much in the sub-genre fail miserably.   Its level of atmosphere and character are picture perfect, and, despite some lackluster moments in the special effects department, it triumphs in nearly every area.