Child, 2025.
Directed by Cyrus Neshvad.
Starring Brigitte Urhausen, Malik Zidi, Lydia Indjova, Raphaël Temim, Jules Werner, Anne Klein
SYNOPSIS:
A couple try to find a solution to save their dying son, which puts them on a dangerous path, testing parental instincts with clashing moral demands.
There is a sombre beauty writ large on this compelling and troubling feature from Cyrus Neshvad. A technically accomplished work for a debut that looks like it’s from a more experienced director, the film delivers true human terror in a bleak and challenging environment. Testing the limits of how a horror film is composed, the story blends family drama, social politics, and horror in a study of the parental instinct.
The story follows Anne (Brigitte Urhausen) and Greg (Malik Zidi), parents of a dying son. When they have investigated all of the usual channels for finding the transplant he needs, the mystery gets going, and they’re off on a road trip prompted from their Luxembourg wealth lives by the all-knowing sat nav. The tense and nervous close-ups of the couple on the road tell of guilt and recrimination, and we know this is a couple who are under intense emotional pressure.
Once they get to the destination, it starts to get even darker. They don’t find the clinical environment they had expected; instead, in a cave in the woods of somewhere in Central Europe, the dodgy deal gets underway and is then interrupted by a shootout as organised crime types fire their way in, trying to get some spoils of the worst in human endeavour.
Anne and Greg manage to escape with their precious organic product, only to get into even deeper waters. The terrifying presence of Lydia Indjova’s grieving mother, who happens to be pretty comfortable with firearms, adds another level of fear for the couple. The film then brings up feelings of survival horror in the woods. Lurking, stalking presences mean nowhere is safe.
The film shifts between genre style and tone expertly throughout. All of the performers are excellent in the way they show how stories such as these, although no doubt amped up, sadly have more than just the core of truth in them. The state of the exploited and the fact that there is a market for human parts and organs has been explored in horror stories many times, but rarely with such raw emotion and empathy as this. When it comes down to it, the story asks, what would any parent do? Well, perhaps not this, but who knows? The idea is there.
The added element of another danger more from dark fantasy – but still rooted in reality – gives Child another unexpected ingredient. Overall, all of these elements add up to an artistically formed drama exploring the outer reaches of a family nightmare.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert W Monk
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