RALPH J. POOLE The Future Was Dark: Das finstere Tal as Alpine Western In a special edition of the Polish journal Studia Filmoznawcze of 20ll on "Contemporary Transnational Westem: Themes and Variations since 2000," one of the editors, MarkPary2, asserts that "[f]ilms exist in a global space of cultural exchange in which aesthetic bomowings and contextual reinventions have become something of a nom." He goes on to asseft that "[m]any national cinemas are strong today because they have found appealing ways of combining cultural specificity with issues of universal interest" (5). Amongst the films discussed in this issue is Das finstere Tal, a 2014 Austrian-Gennan co-production by Austrian director Andreas Prochaska, of which Pary2 wriles that it has "succeeded in creating a unique mix of a formula-driven plot and a range of culturally specific references, which proves the viability of the Western genre for the examination of issues pertaining to very different communal experiences" (8). Yet, from its inception, the film was meant and received as more than 'just' a fresh, Austrian take on one of the most iconic Hollywood genres, even though the Westem features are decidedly prominent. The film, the Austrian Oscar Candidate of 2014 and winner of various prizes such as the Deutscher Filmpreis 2014 and the Östeneichischer Filmpreis 20i5, was marketed as a bold genre mix of alpine Western-psycho-thriller-drama (Müller), "Neo-Heimatkrimi" (Grimnitz), and winter-Western (Handke). It is an adaptation from the 2010 novel by German writer Thomas Willmann, which had already been reviewed as a genre crossover of alpine novel, mystery thriller, Western (Westermann), and as "High Noon in dunkler Heimat Literatur,"r What all those composite labels have in colnmon is that they highlight the hybrid nature of novel and film, and more specifically: the Austrian-American blending of genres, above all the Western and the Heimaffilm. The plot takes us back to a late nineteenth-century remote mountain village - the film was shot in the South Tyrolian valley of Schnalstal - which is run or rather terrorized by the male Brenner dynasty, consisting lHirsch.