Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Western

  • 20172017
  • UnratedUnrated
  • 2h 1m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
4.1K
YOUR RATING
Western (2017)
Trailer
Play trailer2:06
2 Videos
13 Photos
Drama
German construction workers building a dam near a Bulgarian village interact with the locals, and soon the troubles arise both with the locals and among themselves.German construction workers building a dam near a Bulgarian village interact with the locals, and soon the troubles arise both with the locals and among themselves.German construction workers building a dam near a Bulgarian village interact with the locals, and soon the troubles arise both with the locals and among themselves.
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
4.1K
YOUR RATING
    • Valeska Grisebach
    • Valeska Grisebach
  • Stars
    • Meinhard Neumann
    • Reinhardt Wetrek
    • Syuleyman Alilov Letifov
    • Valeska Grisebach
    • Valeska Grisebach
  • Stars
    • Meinhard Neumann
    • Reinhardt Wetrek
    • Syuleyman Alilov Letifov
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 17User reviews
    • 97Critic reviews
    • 81Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos2

    Western
    Trailer 2:06
    Watch Western
    Western (official trailer)
    Trailer 2:05
    Watch Western (official trailer)

    Photos13

    Meinhard Neumann and Reinhardt Wetrek in Western (2017)
    Meinhard Neumann in Western (2017)
    Reinhardt Wetrek in Western (2017)
    Meinhard Neumann and Syuleyman Alilov Letifov in Western (2017)
    Meinhard Neumann in Western (2017)
    Meinhard Neumann in Western (2017)
    Western (2017)
    Western (2017)
    Western (2017)
    Western (2017)
    Western (2017)
    Western (2017)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Meinhard Neumann
    Meinhard Neumann
    • Meinhard
    Reinhardt Wetrek
    Reinhardt Wetrek
    • Vincent
    Syuleyman Alilov Letifov
    • Adrian
    Veneta Fragnova
    • Veneta
    Viara Borisova
    • Vyara
    • (as Vyara Borisova)
    Kevin Bashev
    • Wanko
    Aliosman Deliev
    • Mancho
    Momchil Sinanov
    • Manchos Großvater
    Robert Gawellek
    • Tommy
    Jens Klein
    • Jens
    Waldemar Zang
    • Boris
    Detlef Schaich
    • Helmuth
    Sascha Diener
    • Marcel
    Enrico Mantei
    • Wolle
    Gulzet Zyulfov
    • Gulzet
    Kostadin Kerenchev
    • Kostadin
    Katerina Dermendzhieva
    • Elena
    Maria Prokopova
    • Verkäuferin im Kiosk
      • Valeska Grisebach
      • Valeska Grisebach
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Museum Hours
    6.9
    Museum Hours
    By the Time It Gets Dark
    6.4
    By the Time It Gets Dark
    The Dreamt Adventurer
    Sehnsucht
    6.5
    Sehnsucht
    Zama
    6.7
    Zama
    In the Aisles
    6.9
    In the Aisles
    Petition
    7.8
    Petition
    The Image You Missed
    6.6
    The Image You Missed
    Requiem for Mrs. J
    7.2
    Requiem for Mrs. J
    Sunset Song
    6.4
    Sunset Song
    Victor and Victoria
    6.9
    Victor and Victoria
    Western
    6.1
    Western

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Features an entire cast of non-professionals, with the majority of them having this movie as their first credit.
    • Connections
      Featured in Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (2018)

    User reviews17

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    Builds suspense through silences
    Like a lonely, mysterious gunslinger from the Old West, a tall, slender rugged-looking man with a thick mustache comes to a small Bulgarian village near the Grecian border as part of a German work crew in Valeska Grisebach's ("Longing") Western. The man is Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann), in Bulgaria to work on a hydroelectric power station close to the village. He could be Alan Ladd or John Wayne, transported across miles and years to Eastern Europe to conquer the natives, except here the natives are family-oriented local residents who do not carry tomahawks. Alienated by their unfamiliar surroundings, the workers hang the German flag in their camp and mock the local residents whose language they do not understand.

    One says, "Everything's messed up here. It's just like traveling through time, going back to the past." Grisebach says that, "It's very interesting when you have the chance to have empathy, but you instead have contempt, or a conflict, instead of identifying yourself with the other one." We can sense that a clash of cultures is inevitable, but we do not know in what direction it will go. Remembering the German occupation of their country during the war, the townspeople themselves are not eager to offer any welcome. Grisebach contrasts the uber-masculine posturing of the construction workers at the camp with the warm family gatherings in the town. With no musical score, the film builds suspense through silences and facial expressions that tell us what words cannot.

    Meinhard is treated with disdain by the work crew boss Vincent (Reinhardt Wetrek), who exacerbates tension with the locals by flirting with a young woman out for a swim, an incident that borders on harassment. Though he claims that he is only there for the money, Meinhard is the only worker who makes an effort to bridge the divide with the locals. Finding himself alone on a country road, he hitches a ride with some villagers and begins a friendship with Adrian (Syuleyman Alilov Letifov), one of the locals. In conversation, Meinhard claims to be a member of the Foreign Legion with service in Afghanistan and Africa which they accept without question. While on a drive in the countryside with Adrian, Meinhard tells him that this is "Paradise," to which Adrian replies in Bulgarian, "We understand each other." It is never clear, however, what is really understood and what is not. Despite the growing closeness of the relationship between Meinhard and the locals, the difficulty in communicating adds to the tension which threatens on several occasions to spill over into violence. There is a dispute about water rights which the crew needs to mix the gravel, a confrontation after a poker game in which Meinhard wins too much money, and an incident when he gets in the middle of a dispute with mafia-like authorities. At one point, after being knocked to the ground, Meinhard asserts that "Violence is not my thing," though, when asked about the planet, he offers his opinion that it is only the strong who survive.

    Grisebach keeps our attention by drawing on anecdotal threads that complement the narrative. A white horse, whose custody is a matter of dispute, is injured when Vincent leads him to a mountain he cannot navigate; Wanko (Kevin Bashev), a young boy whose parents are in Greece to find work, is temporarily knocked unconscious when he hits Meinhard falling from a truck. Grisebach expresses her reliance on narrative spinoffs this way, "It's really to find how you have this little plot point or a little suspenseful moment," she says, "and then you create space, more space for atmosphere." There is plenty of atmosphere in Western, but where it is headed and indeed what it is about is a guessing game throughout. The film's well-drawn characters and naturalistic look and feel keep us engaged, however, until it erupts in a dance of humanity and one man's dream of a life filled with the simplicity of friendship and brotherhood.
    helpful•39
    14
    • howard.schumann
    • Oct 15, 2017

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 24, 2017 (Germany)
      • Germany
      • Bulgaria
      • Austria
    • Official sites
      • Komplizen Film (Germany)
      • Official Facebook
      • German
      • Bulgarian
      • English
      • French
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Petrelik, Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria
    • Production companies
      • Komplizen Film
      • Chouchkov Brothers
      • Coop99 Filmproduktion
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 2 hours 1 minute
      • Color

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Western (2017)
    Top Gap
    By what name was Western (2017) officially released in Canada in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.