"Agonie" or "Agony" is an Austrian/German co-production from 2016 that resulted in this German-language movie. It runs for pretty much exactly 1.5 hours and is the most known and also only full feature film effort by Paraguayan writer and director David Clay Diaz. The film received some solid awards attention already, which surprises me a bit as I found it pretty uninteresting from start to finish. This is the story of a young man who ends up killing and dismembering his girlfriend. It is not really about the crime itself or the violence, even if it is pretty graphic towards the end. But as I wrote "towards the end", you can already guess correctly that it is all about that happens before that and that results in him doing what he does and committing such a horrible act. The cast is a mix of German and Austrian actors and I must say I do not know a single one of them to be honest. Certainly no big names here, even if some of the young actors may perhaps have a breakthrough in the coming years. This film, however, is not the one that will turn them into stars. This also has to do with the bleak and very sterile approach here. Nothing too uncommon for Austrian films, but still they frequently manage to be far more interesting than this one here, even if they are completely void of comedy like this one here. One example that comes to mind is "The Robber" for example that is also based on real events. This one here I think is completely fictitious. I personally would say the best way to describe it is by making a parallel of what a modern version of Fassbinder's "Herr R." and this is what the film would have looked like if it had gone wrong and turned out irrelevant and unappealing. Sadly only two stars out of five for this one here from me and I don't recommend the watch. There are many great Austrian films out from recent years, probably more than from Germany. This is not one of these. watch something else instead.
Review of Agony
