The Ravine

After kick-starting the Mondo genre, this World War II war/romance mash-up was a notable change of direction for Italian director Paolo Cavara (The Black Belly of the Tarantula). A co-production between Italy, USA and the former Yugoslavia, the film showcases some impressive spectral scenery, using facial expression over dialogue to provide mood and ambience to the narrative. Perhaps a little overlong — aggravated by the more languid second half, in the final analysis, this is still quite a unique take on both genres.

Yugoslavia in the winter of 1943: professional hunter and Afrika Korps marksman Sergeant Holmann (The Man from Uncle’s David McCallum), parachutes into a snow-clad mountain range, deep inside Yugoslavia. There, he rendezvouses with a vulnerable German battalion lead by Captain Keller (John Crawford), worn down by constant fighting with the local partisan movement. Keller assigns Holmann with the task of capturing alive — for propaganda reasons —dangerous female sniper Anja Kovach (Nicoletta Machiavelli, Navajo Joe, Big Guns), responsible for over fifty fatalities to the German forces stationed at ‘the ravine’.

The two cat-and-mouse each other throughout the harsh wintry terrain of ‘the ravine’, but it’s the more disciplined Holmann who’s triumphant, ensnaring Kovach whilst she is occupied lighting a marker fire for a partisan supply aircraft. They end up in a spartan empty house, previously inhabited by two (now dead) crones — a temporary respite from the ravages of the warring opposite sides.

To survive, the two are forced to fend for themselves and form an uneasy trust, which gradually blossoms in intensity to a passionate romance. The war is quickly forgotten, but what will become of them and their idyll when the fighting reconvenes and eventually catches up with them?