Requiem (2006)

Genre: Drama / Foreign

Directed by: Hans-Christian Schmid

Cast: Sandra Hüller, Imogen Kogge, Anna Blomeier

Running time: 93 minutes

Michaela Klingler is a young woman who suffers from epilepsy. In spite of the illness, she’s adamant about leaving home and going to college to become a teacher. She soon starts showing signs of other ailments, which her family and the church believe to be demonic possession.

This film was loosely inspired by the real case of Anneliese Michel, a German woman who was believed to be possessed and died in 1976.

Sandra Hüller is solid in the lead role. You can truly feel the plight of Michaela through her performance. The supporting cast was also very good. The story of Requiem was easy to follow with the subtitles, since I have very minimal knowledge of the German language.

I found that this film ended too abruptly; I could have taken more. It is a very intense character study that is well worth seeing. It is a little scary to think that these kinds of cases happened for real.

Rating: ««««