UNDER THE FAMILY TREE
synopsis
Sixteen-year-old Isabell was reluctant to join a self-help camp, but she changed her mind as she is drawn to the charming therapist, Einar, who uses a “Penetrating Family Constellation” treatment. One participant disappears from the camp, quickly turning Isabell’s passion toward Einar into suspicion. Under the Family Tree is an interesting coming-of-age film, combining psychological thriller and horror film. The teenaged protagonist goes into a forest, that mysterious space, on a land with a complicated history where the owners changed during a war; a typical space for the horror genre. The sexy guy who controls the minds of others, and the participants drawn to him like an Orphic group overlap into the realm of occult. The young girl who steadily digs around the doubtful death, unlike the ignorant grownups, is also interpreted as a genre icon. Up to the last turnabout, where the boundary between reality and illusion is raised, this excellent work never lets you relax. Knoche’s directorial capability is brilliantly displayed through the strength that she maintains the frame and mystery of refined structures to the very last.
international title: | Under the Family Tree |
original title: | Die Familie |
country: | Germany |
year: | 2017 |
genre: | fiction |
directed by: | Constanze Knoche |
film run: | 92' |
release date: | PL 26/04/2019 |
screenplay: | Constanze Knoche, Leis Bagdach |
cast: | Stephanie Amarell, Mirosław Baka, Emma Drogunova, Siir Eloglu, Claudia Geisler-Bading, Godehard Giese, Karin Hanczewski, Alma Leiberg, Leon Ullrich |
cinematography by: | Andreas Bergmann |
film editing: | Kai Minierski |
art director: | Katarzyna Slaska |
costumes designer: | Ramona Petersen |
producer: | Holm Taddiken, Leis Bagdach |
executive producer: | Leis Bagdach |
line producer: | Anna Zajaczkowska |
production: | Neufilm |
distributor: | Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), Holly Pictures |