In a high valley, 5,500 feet above sea level near Partenen in the Montafon region of Austria, a stream flows leisurely beside a narrow gravel path. It winds its way through an area of rugged, untamed nature. No ski lifts, no high-voltage power lines, no huts or houses. The bizarre shapes of the mountains soaring into the heavens on both sides reveal nothing but the scars of landslides and avalanches, a bleak world of incredible visual power. This is the main setting of Brother of Sleep. Since no existing village could meet the demands of a work of such stature, we knew that in order to create the appropriate world for the film, the village had to be built from scratch. Our village is not based on any model. We did not look through books or historical documents to reconstruct these Alpine dwellings.
By December of 1993 all of the drawings for our village were complete. We knew exactly what we wanted. The only thing that was unknown was whether producer Joseph Vilsmaier, who was also the director and cinematographer, would be able to finance the project.
We faced fierce opposition from environmentalists because nobody from that region wanted that untouched area in the Montafon mountains to be the location of a film. Thanks to strong support from the right people, we were granted permission to film.
March/April 1994. By the end of July, the first take was scheduled. That gave us three months to complete a realistic village from the 19th century. It was hard to imagine how difficult it would be to reconstruct century-old wooden shacks - from the inside and outside alike - together with a functional infrastructure in all detail in an area that was unaccustomed to filming.
Vilsmaier managed to buy old barns, sheds and stables in the surrounding area. Franz Baumgartener, a great designer of exteriors sets, worked on erecting Eschberg. He hired six carpentry companies from the Montafon area which proved to be a sure-hit. The experienced craftsmen made possible the seemingly impossible: in two and a half months our film's town, Eschberg, was built.
July 1994. Tommy Vögel, the set dresser, was buying anything that he could find in the area and created one miracle after the other. He brought in manure from the valley and an animal kingdom of chickens, goats, pigs, sheep, calves, ox, cows and donkeys. Our town came alive.
February 1995. Shooting has long been completed. Our lonely and abandoned town was deeply covered in snow. The church was run through by an avalanche, only the tower, the roof and entrance portal were left - the long sides were missing. Some other houses were also destroyed by the avalanche. Our town was only a movie set after all. The avalanche started what we had promised from the beginning -- to take down everything and put back the area back into its natural state.
