The first encounter with her newborn makes Julia (Marie Leuenberger) skeptical, despite having yearned for a child for such a long time. But there were complications during labor and now the baby is acting strange: he barely screams, isn’t hungry, and doesn’t seem to feel pain. Her husband Georg (Hans Löw) ignores it all. He is happy and fully steps into his father role. On the other hand, Julia’s doubts about whether this is actually her little son that she is now taking care of grows stronger. The successful conductor reacts very sensitively to everything that happens to her, the boy, and around her. Dr. Vilfort (Claes Bang) the head doctor at the fertility clinic, and the midwife looking after her (Julia Franz Richter) pose a big danger. But every attempt to communicate her worries makes her more suspicious. Soon, not only does Georg think she’s crazy, but the youth welfare worker is alarmed as well. The desperate mother keeps fighting alone.

The Austrian director Johanna Moder doesn’t depict Julia’s fate as a horror film, even if the production has decidedly dark, even sometimes gruesome, features. What emerges instead are Julia's ambivalent thoughts about how, with all the love and care, insecurity and fear creep in with the birth of a child. Suddenly, motherhood isn’t just a deep wish, but a threat to one’s own identity. A feeling of unease that can’t be shaken off like a nightmare. This conflict is at the center of Moder’s slightly artificial drama, which Marie Leuenberger carries with her internal turmoil and a lot of energy.

Pamela Jahn

Translation: Elinor Lewy