Michael Review

At a time when paedophilia in film is usually a glib exercise in shock value, this disturbing film from Michael Haneke’s former casting director is an interesting corrective. Open-ended, human and even darkly funny at times — always at its po-faced protagonist’s expense — it tells the story of Michael (Michael Fuith), an office worker who keeps a ten year-old boy in his basement. Intensity is guaranteed, but what separates this from the pack is the myriad questions it raises about his motives: is he a pervert, a child-man or a monster? Nimbly, just when we’re thinking the latter, Markus Schleinzer ends with a finale that gives the film some much-needed humanity and both barrels of its unimaginable horror.