In I Promise Wolfgang Murnberger undoubtedly relies on many clichés concerning not only military life, but also – and above all – the always complicated transition from childhood to adulthood. These clichés, however, manage to fully capture the feelings of the young protagonists, making this important feature film an extremely intimate and intelligent work.
It is based on a real-life news story 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance. In the film – which is divided into five chapters, each concerning a particular day – everything takes place from October 12 to December 23, 1993. Everything leads up to a single event in which all the characters will be involved in one way or another. But how important is the human being in this feature film by Michael Haneke?
In Axel Corti’s Radetzkymarsch (which was finished by Gernot Roll after the director’s sudden death), alongside the parable about the empire there is a particular focus on the father/son relationship and what the two protagonists never managed to say to each other. All this is staged also thanks to the excellent performances of a very good cast, within which the great Max von Sydow stands out.
There is a special world that is told in Washed Ashore. This, in fact, is the world of fishermen, of cemetery keepers, of Buddhist monks, of homeless people, of soldiers used to gather for their exercises far from residential areas. A world where many cultures come together with dozens of different stories. Stories and people who, however, have something great in common: the Danube.