An ex-con, a former prostitute, a rural policeman and his frustrated wife — find themselves fatefully intertwined in this taut, Academy Award-nominated thriller.

A nominee for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film this year, this stark but gripping thriller from Austrian writer/director Goetz Spielmann is a tale of desperate love, revenge, guilt and the fate that unites two dissimilar couples. Ukrainian-born Tamara is a prostitute in Vienna working at a brothel where the sleazy owner has the hots for the sad-faced beauty. She thinks she finds a way out of her hellhole when she begins an affair with the owner’s assistant and ex-con Alex and together they escape to the countryside. Living on a farm there, Robert and Ursula are happily married but find themselves increasingly stressed when Ursula fails to get pregnant. Needing money, Alex robs a bank but the scheme is bungled, ending with the police in pursuit of their car. When a shot (from policemen Robert) is fired at the escaping car’s tires but misses, it propels the future of the two men inexorably together. This is a masterful, thoughtful psychological drama that asks the question, "Whose fault is it if life doesn't go your way?" (German with English subtitles) -- Raymond Murray