Goodnight Mommy

A surreal horror, a psychological thriller, or transgressive cinema? A shocking story by two documentary filmmakers-Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, Ulrich Seidl's screenwriter-that, although defying traditional film conventions, uses classic methods to control the viewer's attention. Every frame is full of traps and clues. It may seem like they are following a straight line to the truth, but nothing could be more mistaken. Ten-year-old twins, Lucas and Elias, are spending their vacation at their family's summer house. They are inseparable and nearly identical, although one of them appears to be more timid and sensitive, and he submits to his less restrained brother's crazy ideas. Their mother returns from the hospital with her face wrapped in bandages. Irritable, unhappy, and in pain, she introduces a slate of new rules. In fact, she is so different from the sweet woman the boys remember that they begin to suspect more and more with each passing day that she is not who she claims to be. They form a common front against her increasingly aggressive behavior, taking drastic measures in order to discover just what is behind their mother's suffering.