Die Tote in der Berghütte (2014)

After three years away, Charly arrives by train from Hamburg at Graz Central Station, where she is planning to meet her boyfriend, Max. She has known Max since their childhood in Styria and happened to run into him again in Hamburg. But her friends Rita, Sonja, and Ingrid are also waiting for her in Graz. The domineering, selfish Rita then suggests they immediately hold a party at her family’s hunting lodge in Upper Styria. A fifth friend, Manu, has supposedly been invited too, but she cannot be reached. The women are not at all keen on Rita’s plan, because when they were children, the five of them had a weekend like this that ended in disaster: while playing with a hunting rifle, Rita fired a shot into the woods. Max’s father was hit, losing an eye and his ability to speak. Rita’s father covered up the accident and invented a poacher who had supposedly fired the shot. Afterward, however, he looked after the man and Max, whom he treated like his own son and whose university studies he paid for. Ingrid, too, studied at Rita’s father’s expense and has worked for the family business for years. Until now, no one has learned the truth about the incident. Charly is still troubled by the memory of it. Since Rita has already arranged everything with Ingrid’s help, they agree to stay the night at the house and set off with Max. On the way to Upper Styria, they stop at a service station. Afterward, tipsy Rita gets behind the wheel despite the others’ protests. On the mountain road to their destination, she forces a blue sports car carrying three men off the road, but simply drives on. Shortly afterward, they reach Max’s parents’ house to pick up the key to the lodge. There, Max says he is thinking about moving to Hamburg. Given their history, Charly is extremely uncomfortable when he takes her to see his father, who hides his disfigured face behind sunglasses. Max then takes the women to a freight cable car, where the path to the hunting lodge begins. The property is very remote and can only be reached on foot or by cable car. On the way there, Charly sees the blue car again. When they arrive at the lodge, the women run to a pond to swim. Ingrid repeatedly and aggressively pushes Rita under the water. Charly goes back to the lodge alone and feels as though she is being watched. Manu also arrives at the lodge by cable car. She has a serious, unspecified illness, takes strong medication, and has spent recent months in India. The two women are attacked by the three men from the blue car (referred to in the screenplay as “three guys”), who try to rape them. Rita suddenly arrives and drives the men away with the rifle. Aissa, Max’s father’s German shepherd, is no help and runs into the woods. Rita persuades the shaken women to stay, since there is no mobile phone reception and they cannot call the police. Dinner together on the terrace ends in an argument with tipsy Rita, who announces that she is going to get engaged to Max. Charly cannot believe any of it. She wants to leave, but a storm is brewing and prevents them from going. Everyone except Rita, who wants to go swimming, is busy bringing the things on the terrace to safety. Then the power goes out and the cable car starts moving. The dead dog is sent to the house in the gondola. Apparently, the three men killed him. This causes panic, and the women flee inside. Rita is lying dead in the bathroom, shot with the very hunting rifle Charly had wanted to take with her for protection on the way down the mountain. Strangely, the gun is back in the locked gun cabinet, but the key is missing. While some of the women see links to the past and even consider Max a possible avenger, others accuse one another of committing the murder. Rita has just antagonized everyone, so each of them has a reason to kill her. The lesbian Ingrid had just been fired by Rita, despite having devoted herself to the company for years out of love for Rita. According to Rita, Ingrid had only achieved anything because Rita’s father had supported her. Several years earlier, Rita stole Manu’s boyfriend while Manu was losing her hair because of her illness. Manu fell into a deep crisis as a result. That was why she “fled” to India, where she worked at a hospice for the dying. Charly was the one who had betrayed Rita back then. Then there is the argument over Max, during which Charly said, “I want to get out of here, or I’ll end up killing you!” Rita had also hinted to Sonja that she had already had every man she wanted, and told her not to “get any illusions.” Sonja, however, is the only one who feels no guilt about the cover-up of the accident. They decide to wait together in the living room until morning. The depressed Manu goes to sleep in one of the upstairs rooms. The next morning, Sonja and Charly suddenly begin blaming each other. Charly storms out of the argument and into the woods, with Ingrid and Sonja following her. When they return to the lodge, the sick Manu is lying motionless on the floor, and Max has arrived, as arranged, to pick the women up. In a farewell letter, Manu explains that she cannot live with her guilt. At Rita’s funeral, Sonja confesses to Charly that she shot Rita after Rita admitted she had also seduced Sonja’s husband, Christoph. Their son, Felix, has a bacterial infection that will leave him blind within a year. Sonja immediately concluded that Rita could only have brought the sexually transmitted disease into her family through the affair. When confronted, Rita had merely said she would get tested so she would not have “a child like that” herself.