This one was not originally on my list but sometimes I challenge my own limits. I knew this was going to be a slow burn and as much as I feel it’s a drama more than it is horror, it does scare you in a different way. Some movies we go to enjoy and some are made to push our buttons. I feel this is the movie where I can appreciate the craft that went into it, but it’s not comfortable to watch. It takes a particular audience to watch it.
The Time of Moulting was written and directed by Sabrina Mertens. It’s a family living in the Germany of 1970. A young child lives with her permanently ill mother and her temperamental father. The family tends to keep to itself, isolated in their apartment which seems to be cluttered with old things and old memories. The father watches TV, the mother is often too weak to leave the bed and the child soon follows the trend of never leaving the house or do nothing of consequence.
The film conveys a sense of stillness and decay. It’s like the core of this family is wasting away the years until they rot from inside. I’m going to have to borrow the word stifling from another review because that just conveys where this film is going, which is nowhere. It’s a family that is crumbling from the inside. The child is prone to fantasies and playing with dangerous tools. It’s disturbing and even oppressive to watch, and yet successful in its intent.
Recommended only for discerning audiences that can appreciate its intent. Casual viewers will be immediately turned off. It’s not entertaining in the regular sense, so mainstream audiences will stay clear. I feel that it does accomplish what it wants, which is to suffocate its characters and the viewer with a sensation of claustrophobia. Although this is not the kind of movie that I really go out of my way to see, there is an audience that will appreciate the way it’s made. It’s just not something I would ever watch casually.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 