IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched in the cinema (128th visit in 2024)
After his first feature film "Luz" received so much international attention, it was a challenge for Tilman Singer to follow up this first film with an equally good second film. The feelings that accompanied him while working on "Luz", a mixture of fear and hope, as well as reports about cuckoo children, inspired him to create the story of "Cuckoo", which, like "Luz", is a mixture of different genre elements. After its premiere at the Berlinale 2024, "Cuckoo" was shown at various film festivals and is now being released in German cinemas.
In German myths and fairy tales, nature has always been a transition into the realm of the supernatural and the fantastic. This idea can also be found in horror films, for example when the business traveler Hutter crosses a bridge in "Nosferatu" and thus enters the sphere of influence of the sinister Count Orlok, who is even able to control all natural phenomena. Tilman Singer's "Cuckoo" must be placed in this tradition, because both narratively and formally, the contrast between human civilization and nature plays an important role in the story from the very first moment.
When Gretchen's (Hunter Schafer) family enters their new home, a huge glass wall separates them from the forest and the mountains, which from now on seem like an eerie backdrop, a source of horror as well as a metaphor for the heroine's isolation. Logic, civilization and reason are switched off as soon as you enter this nature, which may explain why Singer mixes a number of narrative and visual elements to convey the impression of the unpredictable. At times this is very serious, almost tragic, then there are scenes that seem ironic, which overall has a very inconsistent tonal effect. Like "Luz", "Cuckoo" is not an "easy" genre film and will certainly not make it easy for its audience, but the movie is fascinating time and again, especially thanks to this mixture of dark and eerily beautiful moments.
This fascinating mixture, which gives "Cuckoo" a very unique atmosphere, is underlined by the ensemble, first and foremost of course Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens. As the name of her role suggests, Schafer's character is one who confronts this strange environment with her wealth of experience based on explainability and reason. The drive to break out is just as strong as the urge to have a home, even if it is irretrievably lost. Gretchen seems more like Lewis Carrol's Alice, as she quickly learns the rules of this world and its ruler, who is also called Herr König. Schafer plays the mixture of the desire to escape and the desire for a home just as convincingly as the learning phase of her character, who has to face a threat that lies outside her known world. In "Cuckoo", Dan Stevens underlines his talent for empathizing not only with characters, but also with their world and imagination, so that Herr König is endowed with the aura of the seducer and becomes a character who seems like the male counterpart to the Queen of Hearts.
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