GOODNIGHT MOMMY

Ich seh, Ich seh

Austria 2014 99 min

DIRECTOR: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala

SCREENPLAY: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Martin Gschlacht

CAST: Susanne Wuest, Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz, Hans Escher

PRODUCTION: Ulrich Seidl Film

This psychologically unnerving thriller with a thoroughly bizarre plot plays out within the four cramped walls of a remote house. Twin boys begin to suspect that their mother, whose face is wrapped entirely in bandages, is not actually who she claims to be. As their waking moments morph into nightmare, a plot twist forces audiences to reconsider everything that came before.

VERONIKA FRANZ (b. 1965, Vienna), known as husband Ulrich Seidl’s assistant director and co-scripter, collaborated on Dog Days (Hundstage, 2001) and the loose trilogy about contemporary middleclass women desperately seeking fulfillment and the meaning of life: Paradise: Faith (Paradies: Glaube, 2012), Paradise: Love (Paradies: Liebe, 2012), and Paradise: Hope (Paradies: Hoffnung, 2013). The psycho-horror flick Goodnight Mommy, co directed with Severin Fiala, took the main prize at this year’s Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.

SEVERIN FIALA (b. 1985, Vienna) graduated in screenwriting from the Vienna Film Academy. After the short Elephant Skin (Elefantenhaut, 2009) he co-directed the feature documentary Kern (with Veronika Franz, 2012), following the controversial Austrian director, actor, singer, and writer for a year and a half to capture his inner self.