Via Mala

The worst father in the world is the dramatic engine behind Josef von Báky’s beautifully and uniquely (for the place and time) expressionistic Via Mala, a rural village thriller released one month before the Nazis’ unconditional surrender to the Allied forces. The father in question is Jonah Lauretz (Carl Wery), a sawmill owner and cold-hearted hulk of a man who terrorizes his wife and grown children with brutal violence, expecting his offspring to prioritize his needs (booze primarily) above all else. When Jonah disappears one night after beating eldest daughter Silvelie (Karin Hardt) to a pulp, the folks of the village, including the magistrate (Albert Florath), assume he’s been killed, but a body is never found. When handsome, younger judge Andreas von Richenau (Viktor Staal) later arrives in town to revisit the case, not only does he marry Silvelie but he may suspect her of murder too. The film’s coldness is tangible, not just in the howling winds and surrounding rock formations, but in the silence and fear that permeate so many of the characters’ interactions, the barren, austere sets leaving little room for warmth. Starkly beautiful, Hoffmann’s cinematography incorporates a variety of angles to match the drama of each scene, his use of shadows, insert shots, and close-ups skillfully applied to maximize tension as the threat shifts from Jonah’s violence to the variety of suspects.