''Requiem'' is a 2006 German drama film directed by

Hans-Christian Schmid Hans-Christian Schmid (born 1965) is a German film director and screenwriter. Life and work Hans-Christian Schmid has collaborated with on several of the movies that he directed. Gutmann wrote screenplays for '' 23 — Nichts ist so wie es s ...

. It stars

Sandra Hüller Sandra Hüller (; born 30 April 1978) is a German actress. She gained critical praise for her portrait of Anneliese Michel in Hans-Christian Schmid's drama ''Requiem'' (2006), and is best known internationally for her starring role in Maren Ad ...

as a woman with epilepsy, Michaela Klingler, believed by members of her church and herself to be possessed. The film steers clear of special effects or dramatic music and instead presents documentary-style film making, which focuses on Michaela's struggle to lead a normal life, trapped in a limbo which could either represent demonic possession or mental illness, focusing on the latter. The film focuses on the medical condition (

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

) as seen in the real-life events of

Anneliese Michel Anna Elisabeth "Anneliese" Michel (21 September 1952 – 1 July 1976) was a German woman who underwent 67 Catholic exorcism rites during the year before her death. She died of malnutrition, for which her parents and priest were convicted of neg ...

, a German woman who was allegedly possessed by six or more demons and died in 1976. These events also served as the basis of

Scott Derrickson Scott Derrickson (born July 16, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films '' The Exorcism of Emily Rose'' (2005), ''The Day the Earth Stood Still'' (2008), ''Sinister'' (2012), '' Deliver Us from Evil'' (2014), '' ...

's 2005 film '' The Exorcism of Emily Rose''.

Plot

Cast

as Michaela Klingler *

Burghart Klaußner Burghart Klaußner (born 13 September 1949) is a German film actor. He received acting training at the in Berlin. Klaußner had engagements at Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, Hamburger Kammerspiele and at the theaters in Cologne, Hamburg, Zür ...

as Karl Klingler *

Imogen Kogge Imogen Kogge (born 8 February 1957) is a German actress. She appeared in more than forty films since 1983. Selected filmography References External links * 1957 births Living people German film actresses {{Germany-actor-stub ...

as Marianne Klingler * Anna Blomeier as Hanna Imhof * Nicholas Reinke as Stefan Weiser *

Jens Harzer Jens Harzer (born 14 March 1972) is a German stage, film, and television actor. He began his career at the Munich Kammerspiele, and has been a member of the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg since 2009. He has appeared at the Salzburg Festival regularl ...

as Martin Borchert *

Walter Schmidinger Walter Schmidinger (28 April 1933 – 28 September 2013) was an Austrian actor. Schmidinger was born in Linz, and died, aged 80, in Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by bo ...

as Gerhard Landauer * Friederike Adolph as Helga Klingler * Irene Kugler as Heimleiterin Krämer * Johann Adam Oest as Professor Schneider

Release

Home media

In the US, ''Requiem'' was released as a region 1 DVD in 2007.

Critical reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 35 reviews, and an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "This harrowing, naturalistic drama holds you in its grip through Huller's intense performance." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

References

External links

* 2006 drama films 2006 films 2006 horror films Films about exorcism Films directed by Hans-Christian Schmid Films set in the 1970s German drama films 2000s German-language films 2000s German films {{2000s-Germany-film-stub