Mescht und Schnee

Overview

If, one evening, a village drinker abuses of schnapps to the point of risking a heart attack, the traditional remedy is to bury him up to his neck in manure and leave him there until morning. The organic heat causes an intense elimination of sweat, and the ammonia brings the patient back to consciousness. The "where am I" that follows and the short-circuiting, in the ethylic haze, of the dazzle of the first sun on the snow and the disgust of finding oneself in manure: this is the crucial moment of the borderline experience portrayed in the film. Death and resurrection, steeped not in mystery but in elementary chemistry, which, through its excess, opens the mind to the terrible presence of reality. A tribute to the strong primal character of the Alsatian in his stubborn resistance to all worldly things, and his fierce anchoring to the world.