Michael [DVD]

Michael walks into his house with some groceries, cooks a meal and sets a table for 2. In the basement, Michael opens a door into a dark room, a boy appears. The boy is Wolfgang, they eat, wash up, watch a bit of television and go to bed.

This is a daily routine for what appears to be a one-parent family, living in Vienna, Austria. Director Markus Schleinzer zooms in on Michael's life, he is single and works in an insurance firm, he has a mother, a sister and a brother. Michael takes Wolfgang to the zoo, they celebrate Christmas, hold hands as they walk the streets, play games and watch tv. All seemingly normal.

Wolfgang is 10 years old, but Michael is not in fact the boys father. Wolfgang has been imprisoned by Michael, a 35-year old paedophile. Schleinzer resists any moralising, and he holds back from showing anything explicit, but shares the nightmare of Wolfgang's abuse through suggestion. Our minds fill in the gaps, assisting in reinforcing Michael and Wolfgangs `relationship' which only increases the tension. Michael's all too believable scenario could be happening anywhere, he could easily be your neighbour, or a colleague in work, and you would never know who he truly is.

Often it is Michael who is the boy, unable and unwilling to handle adult responsibilities, and all too ready to just close the door when he can't handle it. In one particularly disturbing scene, Michael re-enacts a scene from a film in front of Wolfgang, who is unimpressed. For a split second, their roles are reversed. Wolfgangs imprisonment accelerates his journey to adulthood, while Michael becomes the child.

No matter how humane Michael was portrayed, your attention is always focused on Wolfgangs ordeal. The performances of Michael Fuith as Michael and David Rauchenberger as Wolfgang are excellent, especially the latter considering the subject matter. Schleinzer may have tried to humanise Michael's lifeless world to good effect, but some of the poorly conceived plot devices such as his scene with a woman and his accidents felt like he was merely filling in the gaps.

Schleinzer's detached style did leave me feeling short-changed by the end, as if Michael had won. Wolfgang's nightmare is so locked in your consciousness, for once i prayed for some semblance of a conclusion. Schleinzer's view on circumstances is certainly thought-provoking but was just too pessimistic for me. Nevertheless, `Michael' is a deeply provocative film.

Rating 7/10

Sometimes I wonder at why I decide to watch certain films and this falls into that particular category. It is about Michael (Michael Fuith) who has kidnapped ten year old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger), he keeps him locked in a sound proofed room with uber brilliant security in his basement. By day he is a mealy mouthed insurance sales man at a local call centre, then at night he turns into a sort of special uncle / step father to his captive. He acts like he is the father and goes through the rigours of everyday domesticity with his victim as if he were playing out a normal role, like setting the table for dinner and doing the washing up.

Poor Wolfgang is clearly traumatised by the whole thing but is sort of resigned to playing along, probably in the hope of less brutal treatment. We never get to see the actual abuse, but this is none the less powerful for it, perhaps because we are left to fill in the gaps, it appears worse, if that was actually possible. The abuse is also psychological and sometimes I felt that was actually worse than the nightly incursions. I was in a constant state of anxiety whilst watching this. However, I was hooked from the word go but I also wanted it to be over, but paradoxically when it ended I wanted to know more; I am so hard to please.

Writer and director Markus Schleinzer has made an original and provoking film. The acting by the two main actors is brilliant especially David Rauchenberger, who was utterly convincing. Michael also watches violent porn and that gives him ideas too which though disgusting actually helped to break up the tension a couple of times. I kept thinking though that Michael was the most evil character I had ever seen on screen, which is probably not the case but it is the raw emotion of revulsion that such behaviour illicits. To have been able to get such a reaction in a film that is virtually sanitised, up to a point, is a real achievement. Whilst I can not say I loved this I do think it is a masterful piece of film making. In Austrian at just over an hour and a half, this is not one for everybody. But if you like your films to be challenging, well made, acted and engrossing then you ought o give this a try.

How does anyone make a film about a subject such as child molestation? In this case, in an unflinching, manner that causes the viewer to question how such a thing can happen in this day and age. Just how much does anyone know the quiet neighbour or work colleague?

The film focuses on the character of Michael, a quiet loner who comes across as a bit of a loser. Lacking in social skills (played out over scenes of an awkward office party) he is shown to be conscientious in his work and close with his sister, yet he just happens to also be a paedophile who keeps a 10 year old boy imprisoned in a reinforced room in his basement. Building on suspense and a quiet sense of unease, rather than blatant shock tactics (any 'particular' visits Michael makes to the boy, Wolfgang, in the basement are all off-camera) the main disturbing factor seems to be the almost father/son relationship between the man and boy. They take day trips, Wolfgang undercover in the back of the car until Michael tells him it is safe to sit up, and each evening Wolfgang joins Michael for dinner out of the basement where he is permitted to watch some television before returning to his prison. It's these mundane trips and this monotonous daily routine that make the film somewhat more alarming - they do look, for anyone to see, as a father and son. Wolfgang walks hand in hand with Michael, he sees another father and son and looks with interest over - is this really a father and son? Or another boy in the same daily horror as himself? With this is mind perhaps one of the most disturbing scenes is on one such day trip where the boy, Wolfgang is sick. Standing hunched over, Michael rests a hand on his back as vomits violently, a woman stops by observing the scene for a moment too long. Is she suspicious? No, she just wonders if he needs a wet-wipe.

Watching this film is not what anyone would call and enjoyable experience. But it is an interesting one. I felt myself grimace at certain situations and although fairly early on, I knew at least what the final frames of the film would be I still rooted for Wolfgang who at certain points in the film asserted himself - in some ways small and with an air of indifferent disdain and in other ways in a more momentous manner. It's a film that makes the viewer tense, extrememly tense and in that sense Markus Schleinzer succeeds as a film maker. Shock tactics are not needed, the subject matter is shocking enough.