(Germany, 95 min.)
Dir. Sebastian Ko, Writ. Sebastian Ko, Marcus Seibert
Starring: Mehdi Nebbou, Ulrike C. Tscharre, Janina Fautz, Marie Bendig
Programme: Discovery (North American Premiere)
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| Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
"It's strange how comfort blinds us," one character says in an especially ominous scene in the family drama We Monsters. Director/co-writer Sebastian Ko shows a promising hand for
psychology in his feature debut. We Monsters gets right into the headspace of devoted parents
who would literally kill to protect their children as Paul (Mehdi Nebbou) and
Christine (Ulrike C. Tscharre) test the limits of a parent’s love. Paul and
Christine, now divorced, only grasp the effects that their dysfunctional
marriage had on their daughter Sarah (Janina Fautz) when she takes adolescent
mischief too far. The family unit is a grotesque beast as We Monsters creates a veritable horror show in this tense domestic
drama.
We Monsters moves at a rapid speed when Paul takes Sarah and her friend Charlie (Marie Bendig) on a trip out to the woods. Paul, in a disorienting flurry, finds Sarah atop a dam, alone, with Charlie’s backpack floating in the water below. He tries to save the girl, but she’s not to be found. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare, losing the child of another, yet Sarah makes the incident extra troubling. “I pushed her,” she reveals matter of factly. No remorse crosses her face: killing her friend is just something that happened.
We Monsters then
puts Sarah’s parents through the wringer as they wonder how to react to news
that their child is a murderer. Naturally, their instinct is to protect her, so
Charlie’s disappearance remains a mystery even to her own negligent father
(Ronald Kukulies). The parents’ dilemma fascinates as they accept their complicity
in Charlie’s death. Nature or nurture, Sarah is their monster.
Ample shots of the back of characters’ heads (a few too
many, actually) emphasize that We
Monsters is all about psychology and Ko certainly creates complex characters
with Paul and Christine. Both actors offer thoroughly compelling performances,
but We Monsters strains credibility
with the adolescent characters and their unintelligible motives. A few
ludicrous plot twists, while palpably symbolic, shake the effective and
chilling realism of the parable as the parents veer into a series of
unbelievable actions that become increasingly farfetched. Similarly,
digressions in style, like a few too many lingering still shots, reveal a few
too many ideas that don’t come together.
In short, the first half of We Monsters is four-star stuff, but the convoluted latter-half is of a vastly different caliber. It’s nevertheless a very promising debut since Ko delivers monsters that could easily appear in everyday life.
In short, the first half of We Monsters is four-star stuff, but the convoluted latter-half is of a vastly different caliber. It’s nevertheless a very promising debut since Ko delivers monsters that could easily appear in everyday life.
Rating: ★★1/2 (out of ★★★★★)
We Monsters
screens:
-Friday, Sept. 11 at 10:00 PM at Scotiabank 2
-Saturday, Sept. 12 at 9:30 PM at Scotiabank 11
-Saturday, Sept. 19 at 12:30 PM at Scotiabank 9
Please visit www.tiff.net for more
information on this year’s festival.
More coverage on this year’s festival can be found here.
