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| Germany 2006 |
Any actor about to tackle a disabled-person role (that shoo-in for an Academy Award) should first pause and watch Sandra Huller’s raw, mesmerizing, searing performance as Michaela, a deeply religious and psychologically troubled young woman who comes to believe her epilepsy, and the heckling voices she hears during her fits, are signs that she has been chosen to suffer like St Katharina of Biasca. This gripping, complex film about a journey into breakdown and spiritual craving is based, like the recent Exorcism of Emily Rose, on the 70s Klingenberg case, in which a young German girl died at the end of an exhausting series of exorcisms officially sanctioned by a Catholic bishop. Director Schmid (Distant Lights) and scriptwriter Lange provide no easy answers and make no judgements. One could say the seeds were sown by Michaela’s strict Catholic upbringing. Her repressive, baleful mother can barely bring herself to talk about Michaela’s ‘thing’, and sees it as a shambling affliction that needs to be kept under wraps. Her more rational father has searched for answers in the medical world: epilepsy is the verdict – ‘diagnosis by exclsuion’, Michaela scoffs. That she might want to be rid of the crippling seizures that can take hold at any moment is understandable, but tossing away her medication when settling into university and the exhilarating freedom of dorm life is probably a bad idea. However it is in keeping with an excessive, visceral side to this girl who cries out: ‘I am here and I want to live, that’s all’. She embraces everything with fervour, be it dancing at the disco, or study, or letting herself love a gentle chemistry student. Her mother watches her growing up, leaving home, buying fashionable clothes, and sees the devil at work. Michaela’s defiance is further proof of evil. No surprise then, perhaps, that in the first of the series of violent spells that leads Michaela to her eventual doom she can no longer touch the rosary that her mother gave her, taunted by tormenting voices that tell her she’s a slut. Michaela can’t find the answers she seeks, and comes to believe she’s ‘suffering for a greater good, a higher purpose.’ Her friend from university, in a last ditch attempt to rescur Michaela from her ecstatic delusion and the exorcisms being carried out by terrifying priests in her parents’ sitting room, tries to reason with her and poses one of the many unsettling questions about self and consciousness raised by the film: ‘There is nothing there – only you. If they get rid of that, what will be left? — Sandra Reid |
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