The Silent Mountain

Plot

The story begins on May 1915 in South Tyrol where Anderl Gruber, a son of a rich hotel owner, is attending the wedding of his sister Elisabeth (Lisl) with Italian Angelo Calzolari. There, he meets Angelo's sister Francesca, with whom he falls in love. However, the same day Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. The tensions present between Austrians and Italians immediately escalate into the conflict between them, and they both join their respective armies. With expulsion of Italians by the villagers Francesca is forced to hide her identity. However, Fritz Weinberger, a local teacher who returns from the front and who has particularly strong hatred towards Italians, exploits this and offers Francesca to protect her identity in exchange for sexual favors.

Austrian platoon occupies the adjacent mountains and repulse initial assaults of Alpini who are trying to climb a mountain. Later they are reinforced by German Gebirgsjäger unit. Meanwhile, Anderl discovers Francesca's affair with Fritz and returns to the front in rage where he single-handedly repulses a massive attack of Italian infantry. As the following Italian offensives also fail, Nicola Quinziato, the commander of Italian garrison orders Angelo, an experienced civil engineer, to dig a tunnel below the Austrian positions. Initially it is planned to launch an offensive through the tunnels, but later Quinziato decides to set the explosives below the mountain to blow up the Austrian troops. Angelo is discharged immediately after that and sent to the regular infantry, thus exposing him to the dangers of the war.

Some time later, Angelo is caught by the Austrians where he reveals the Italian plans to blow up the mountain. Anderl helps Angelo to return to their village, while the German and Austrian troops decide to hold the mountain despite the imminent danger. Unfortunately, Angelo's identity is quickly discovered and he is summarily executed by the Austrian troops, with Elisabeth watching.

Anderl looks for Francesca, forgives her and leads her out of the village to the mountains. They arrive close to the Austrian positions in the moment of explosion which annihilates the Austrian stronghold. They then leave the valley and Anderl later often thinks about their mountain, a mountain without the soldiers.

Cast

Release

The film was sold to more than 40 countries and was theatrically released in Austria and Italy in March 2014. It was released in the United States on August 19, 2014.

Production

The Silent Mountain was shot in various locations in the Dolomites in South Tirol, Trentino, Tirol and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The story is inspired by the actual happenings of the Mountain War between 1915 and 1918.

The crew and cast was struck by lightning while shooting in the mountains. William Moseley was hit as was the camerawoman. She was looking through the viewfinder as the lightning struck and went through the iron body through her eye to her optical nerve and burnt it.

A battlefield set was destroyed and flushed into a nearby river by a mud slide.