Fantastic Fest 2011

Walter (Jürgen Rissmann) is an assassin on the decline. He’s getting older and losing what little touch he ever had. After bungling a job, Walter gets a chance at redemption. He’s sent to knock off dangerously crazy gangster Berger (Reiner Schone) who lives deep in the snow-covered forests of the Carpathian Mountains. On the way to Berger's home, which looks like the Overlook Hotel from The Shining, Walter meets his assigned partner Mickey (Thomas Wodianka). Mickey is a loose cannon whose taste for sex, drugs and violence jeopardizes Walter’s last shot at saving himself.

Snowman's Land, Thomson’s second film, is a fresh take on the type of edgy crime cinema associated with the likes of Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino. Though the film doesn’t hide its influences, it has a distinctly European, distinctly style and outlook. Its icy world is populated with an array of eccentrics, losers and weirdos. Instead of painting the characters in black-and-white moral terms, Thomson goes for a queasy balance of sympathy and contempt. For example, Walter is a schlub who is put in an untenable situation. It’s easy to feel sorry for him despite the fact that he’s a contract killer out to murder in cold blood. The same is true for nearly all the characters. Characters who start off irredeemable show flashes of humanity, while the stable rock-solid types prove out to have a batshit crazy side. The moral greyness that defines the characters also extends to the humor, which is as vicious as it is absurd. (Rodney Perkins)