Cinematographer turned director Xaver Schwarzenberger has filmed a small wintry story of epic human proportions A young doctor Hanno Poeschi exiles himself to a remote Austrian village when he accidentally causes a death Once at the village winter sets in and against that harsh and poetic backdrop a rabies epidemic sweeps through the population The doctor convinces people he is a biologist but then he treats someone bitten and gives his real profession away As the epidemic raises questions of life and death the doctors mind is brought back to the death that caused his exile and he considers suicide for awhile The same issues come up again when an enraged villager goes on a killing spree and in turn is hunted by the citizens Faced with the prevalence of death all around him the doctor starts to gain some perspective on the personal experience that brought him here in the first place
