Noteworthy real-life facts inform Solvent. The farmhouse really did belong to Grenzfurthner’s grandfather, Otto Zucker. The photos of Zinggl are of Zucker. Grenzfuthner addresses this: “My connection to this story is deeply personal. Set and shot on my maternal grandparents’ derelict farm, the location underscores the link between past and present, bridging the real and imagined. The character Wolfgang Zinggl, depicted through photographs of my grandfather, Otto Zucker, embodies the complex legacy of World War II history. This representation addresses the silence and reluctance that have plagued generations of German and Austrian families, including my own.”
The notion that Nazism had such a hold over this part of Europe through indoctrination, occupation, and extermination is fresh in Austria. Unlike the U.S., where these events seem remote in time and space, the legacy of WWII is not even in the past here. This should resonate with Americans at a time when a certain part of our political discourse includes people saying the Nazis might have had some good ideas. We even have people in the U.S. who assert that the holocaust never happened. When politicians can say with a straight face that there “were very fine people, on both sides” regarding a violent Nazi protest in Charlottesville, VA., it’s clear that this brand of evil is still right under our feet.
“…leaves intense impressions through unease, disgust, and the sick thrill of recognition…”
Gries delivers Holbrook’s POV in an insanely deliberate calm while everyone around him cranks the frenzy up to 11. There’s a Jimmy Buffet song quoted (“My head hurts, my feet stink, and I don’t love Jesus”) and a callback to Talking Heads idea of “water dissolving and water removing.” The cautionary tale is that water is a solvent…and what it dissolves becomes part of it, and then, perhaps, part of us. Same as it ever was. This film leaves intense impressions through unease, disgust, and the sick thrill of recognition of a known evil.
Grenzfurthner builds the seemingly simple horror tale of Solvent upon layers of ideas that will take time to unpack. It may require several viewings to catch all the nuance. However, if you should start to notice your eyes watering excessively and your fingertips getting squishy, then stop there.
"…down a hole into a deep well of evil. "
