Der Atem des Himmels

Der Atem des Himmels is an Austrian feature film. It was filmed in 2010. The Austrian musician and author Reinhold Bilgeri produced and directed the film, which is based on his 2005 historic novel of the same name. The events in the movie are based on the worst avalanche catastrophe in Alpine history. Plot In the fall of 1953, a 41-year-old woman, Erna von Gaderthurn, leaves her arrogant and domineering mother shortly after her father dies to take up a position as teacher in the small village of Blons high in the Vorarlberg in western Austria. There she enchants the local men, in particular the other school teacher, Eugenio Casagrande, and the aristocratic Baron von Kessel, who owns the mountain land above the village but does not live there. Casagrande has been pressing the Baron to give the village better avalanche protection or sell land so that the village can do it. The Baron argues that the reforestation is adequate. Their conflicts over the issue become entwined with their sparring for Erna's love. Eugenio wins out and as winter closes in, the two start a life together with Eugenio's daughter Pia. On January eleventh of the following year, successive avalanches descend down Mount Calv onto Blons, destroying most of the village and killing over fifty people. Erna and Pia survive, but Eugenio dies of loss of blood after being smashed into by timber from his house during the last avalanche. A denouement shows that Erna decides to stay in Blons, raising the orphaned Pia and the son, whom she names Eugenio, that she bears from her dead lover.