Sarah Plays a Werewolf (2017)

On the stage of her high school drama class 17-year-old Sarah gives it all. When she performs, there is an instant of suspense in which she appears to transform completely into her ... See full summary »

Director:

Katharina Wyss

Writers:

Josa Sesink, Katharina Wyss

Stars:

Loane Balthasar, Manuela Biedermann, Simon Bonvin

5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Loane Balthasar	...	Sarah
Manuela Biedermann	...	Monica
Simon Bonvin	...	Benjamin
Monica Budde	...	Frau Bieri
Amélie Peterli	...	Valérie
Sabine Timoteo
Michel Voïta	...	Raphaël
Annina Walt	...	Alice

Storyline

On the stage of her high school drama class 17-year-old Sarah gives it all. When she performs, there is an instant of suspense in which she appears to transform completely into her character. But what lies behind Sarah's radical stage presence? A dark secret she is trying to express, a claustrophobic family environment, the longing for a boyfriend, a friend, someone she can confide in. The more Sarah expresses this desire, the more she ends up alienating the people willing to get close to her. The downfall of an outsider and her incessant struggle to escape solitude.

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Producer's website

Country:

Switzerland Germany

Language:

French Swiss German

Release Date:

25 February 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sarah Plays a Werewolf

Company Credits

Production Co:

Intermezzo Films S.A.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

A genuine horror film but one without the bloodletting.

Like Josephine Decker's recent "Madeline's Madeline", Katharina Wyss's debut "Sarah Plays a Werewolf" is also about a teenage girl who really only discovers herself when being someone else and although set around a theatre class, Wyss' film isn't so much about the process of acting as it is about getting inside the skulls of its characters and in particular inside the troubled mind of Sarah, (a terrific Loane Balthasar). The title might suggest a piece of schlock-horror but you can tell quite early on that this is going to be a much darker, psychological piece, it's violence very subtly applied as it slips only occasionally into fantasy.

Where Decker's film smacked of 'The Method' this Swiss movie feels much more radically 'realist' while the brilliance and depth of Balthasar's performance is alarmingly not like 'acting' at all. This is a rigorous, very European film and it gives us a very different picture of teenage angst than we are used to seeing in American or even British cinema. In the end, it is a horror film and one that will certainly evoke "Carrie" but without the bloodletting and flying daggers. The horrors Sarah experiences are the horrors of being a lonely, if very talented, child with too much imagination and too much time to sit and brood in her insular, almost incestuous, family and unlike DePalma's "Carrie" this Sarah really will chill you to the bone.