Dard Divorce (2007)

While provocation in film is always welcome, especially in these times of moral posturing and virtue signaling, making an “extreme” film can sometimes be a tightrope to walk in that the idea of being “shocking” for the sake of it can wear thin pretty fast. Looking back however at the proliferation of films that got branded with the “extreme” tag that sprung up in the late 90's and early to mid-2000's, a good number of them stand the test of time, no doubt on account of being made by filmmakers with more on there mind that mere shock value. Japan was particularly adept in this field, with Takashi Miike taking on-screen gore and twisted sexuality to new levels in Ichi the Killer (2001) and Visitor Q (2001) and Takashi Ishii pushing Japanese censorship to its limits with Flower and Snake (2004). South Korea's Kim Ki-duk also had audiences gasping thanks to films like The Isle (2000) and Bad Guy (2001). There was also of course the New French Extremity, the pinnacle being Gaspar Noe's Irreversible (2002) which turned the rape-revenge formula on its head by telling the story backwards. Being one of the forefathers of German splatter, Olaf Ittenbach was an extreme filmmaker from the beginning so it's hardly a shock that 2007's Dard Divorce, an exceptionally nasty piece of business, would out-due the rest of the extreme horror competition at the time.

In the midst of a nasty separation from her husband Tim, Nathalie Stein (Martina Ittenbach) is shocked when Tim appears on her front porch appearing to be gravely injured, only to die right in front of her. When Nathalie returns after calling the police however, Tim's body is nowhere to be found. Soon after Nathalie begins to learn some hidden truths about her husband and his involvement with several shady individuals when she is visited by two strangers each telling their own version of what really happened with Tim and a substantial amount of cash. With both believing Nathalie to be hiding information from them regarding Tim, Nathalie finds herself fighting for survival with both attempting to retrieve answers from her utilizing increasingly excruciating methods.

Sadistic even by Ittenbach standards, Dard Divorce (“Dard” being a Persian word for “pain” which is made a plot-point) has the misfortune of being branded with the lamentable label “torture porn” by dismissive reviewers, a massive short-selling of the film. While it's true that Nathalie's tormentors do utilize torturous tactics, the actual scenes of torture aren't what hold the film together. The core of the film is the mystery surrounding Tim's disappearance, if he's actually dead or not and what exactly did he do to cause Nathalie to endure all she does throughout the film. Making things more interesting is the Rashomon (1950) style in which the story is told, with each of Nathalie's torturers telling their own version of the story, each of course being completely different. Although Tim and Nathalie's actual divorce never becomes that big of a narrative concern, Ittenbach nevertheless finds time to address it, even making Nathalie a bit of an alcoholic. Having children getting mixed up in both the divorce as well as the ensuing violence also add a bit more drama to the divorce angle, making Nathlie's struggle all the more harrowing with Martina Ittenbach really being put through hell. Dard Divorce may also have the distinction of being Ittenbach's most viscerally violent film with Ittenbach crafting some of his most grotesque moments including an over-the-top kitchen massacre and a jaw-droppingly innovative death scene on par with the decent into Hell in The Burning Moon (1992) and the SWAT team assault in Garden of Love (2003).

Unfortunately, the film does suffer from a glaring technical flaw late in the film when the details of the central mystery are revealed, the music becomes so loud 99.9% of the dialogue is nearly unintelligible. It doesn't seem to be an issue affecting select copies of the film either as nearly every review available of the film makes note of it. Not that it leaves things open ended, the montage played during the scene makes everything perfectly clear, but to say its distracting would be an understatement. It doesn't seem like Ittenbach has addressed the issue anywhere either, though again the film was very much a bare-bones type of production with Ittenbach shooting a good chuck of the film in his own home in Germany but also later traveling to the US to shoot additional footage, explaining the sometimes awkward clashing of German and American accents. This back-to-basics type of working does give the film a much more grittier feel than some of Ittenbach's previous works like Beyond the Limits (2003) and the previously mentioned Garden of Love, making the film feel more in line with Ittenbach's earlier works like Black Past (1989) and The Burning Moon. Dard Divorce is certainly an acquired taste in an already niche subgenre, but when taking into consideration the horror zeitgeist of the time, it's a prime example of a master demonstrating how to really get extreme.