Rent Revanche (2007)

Revenge surrounded by beauty - Revanche review by Wkarmo

Wiry, little man and his girlfriend (a prostitute) escape from Vienna to the country, rob a bank and, in so doing, his girl gets shot by a policeman, who turns out to be his neighbour. Little man seeks revenge for the shooting and gets it (sort of).

Vengeance is mine - Revanche review by CP Customer

The beautiful Austrian scenery contrasts sharply with the hard existence endured by a petty thief as he waits for an opportunity to exact his vengeance.

The finally is not quite what you may be expecting but still makes its point well.

Sex Crime (spoiler) - Revanche review by Steve

Erratic social realism which starts out as if it's going to be neo-noir but evolves into an offbeat melodrama about the ironies of fate. The earlier scenes are better, with a sullen ex-jailbird (Johannes Krisch) filling in as strong-arm at a brothel in Vienna who intends to rob a bank and then vanish with one of the prostitutes. 

Irina Potapenko is appealing as the Ukrainian illegal immigrant who gets involved in the idiotic scheme, rather than spend a lifetime paying back fees to the scumbag who exploits her. When the plan goes awry- as it must- the deadbeat hired muscle hides out on a farm with his decrepit and equally morose elderly father.

The dramatic irony kicks in when the bank-robber makes pregnant the wife (Ursula Strauss) of the infertile cop who thwarts the robbery! Okay that's a crazy story, but there is some interest in the sympathetic portrayal of these hopeless small time stooges, especially the trafficked sex worker whose existence is a living hell.

Writer-director Götz Spielmann contributes some felicitous visual details and keeps the excesses of the oddball plot as naturalistic as possible while exploring some thematic content. And gratifyingly, these's no music score telling us what to feel.  Though the Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film is a stretch.