The Week in Review; The Film The Inheritors

Austrian writer/director Stefan Ruzowitzky's picture offers a brutal twist on the traditional German "Heimat" film. It follows the fortunes of a group of `30s peasant workers after they inherit their employer's land.

"The sombre allegorical authority and Zolaesque realism of Ruzowitzky's film meld potently," decided Anthony Quinn. "Ruzowitzky's cold-eyed movie combines keen observation with political/historical critique - but one at the expense of the other," wrote Time Out. "Beautifully filmed, sometimes funny but ultimately tragic," opined The Daily Telegraph. "This movie has a fable-like quality, an engaging simplicity, and feels like back- to-basics storytelling," explained The Guardian. "An Austrian arthouse picture and an exceptionally dour, depressing one at that," snapped the Daily Mail.

A darkly engaging parable that the director himself described as an "Alpine Western". It seems the hills are still alive in Austria.

The Inheritors is out on general release, certificate 15. 95 mins