Nightsiren
Director: Tereza Nvotová
Writer: Barbora Namerova, Tereza Nvotová
Cast: Natalia Germani, Eva Mores, Juliana Olhová, Iva Bittová, Jana Olhová, Marek Geisberg, Zuzana Konecná, Noel Czuczor, Peter Ondrejicka, Matus Rysan
Part of: SLASH 1/2 Filmfestival
Seen on: 6.5.2023

Content Note: (attempted) rape

Plot:
After traumatic events during her childhood, Sarlota (Natalia Germani) hasn’t returned to her home village. Now she is an adult and she would like to understand what actually happened back then. So she does come back. But the remaining villagers are suspicious of her. They already thought her mother was a witch, and it seems easy to accuse her of the same. She does find support in Mira (Eva Mores) who is also a bit of an outsider. But the hostilities continue to grow.

Nightsiren is an engaging and touching take on the usual witch narratives. I really enjoyed it (in fact, next to Talk to Me, it was my second highlight of the SLASH 1/2 Filmfestival).

Nightsiren manages a good balance in showing the village culture and social structure as both realistic and really scary. Too often with these kind of settings, you feel like the “backwater village” is actually lost in time. Not so here – it feels probable that villages like this still exist today, that people with (misogynistic) opinions like this still exist today – and not just in remote mountain villages. And that is damn scary.

I also really like Mira and Sarlota and how they resist to fit in, and yet also try to be part of their community – that, too, felt very realistic. I can remember growing up in a small village as an outsider myself and being caught in this kind of pendulum motion of belonging and not belonging. I was a little less happy about the way Helena (Juliana Olhová) and her development throughout the story were handled. I felt like the film tapped into some queermisic notions there.

Generally, the ending will probably be a little divisive, at least in the interpretation of what actually happened and what was fantasy, but to me it felt very fitting and I really liked it. I also really loved the music – they included some really good songs in the film.

There were a couple of plot points I assume were supposed to be more of a surprise but didn’t exactly worked as a twist for me. But since they still worked as narrative devices, I didn’t mind at all. In fact, I was just very much taken with the film.

Summarizing: lovely.