A very hard film to watch which comes to us from Austria where the country was horrified by the kidnap and imprisonment of Natascha Kampusch for most of her childhood. After her release there was a gruesome sexualization of her plight by the Austrian press and later questions began to be asked about how the press reports such crimes.

The director of this film gives us no such option, being careful to avoid just this treatment of the subject. Michael starts off looking like an ordinary father and son getting about their business, until they get home and Michael is locked in a cellar. We realize he is a prisoner allowed out on carefully controlled walks and the man is a phaedophile horribly abusing him with almost commonplace disregard for the child. Fortunately most of the abuse is heavily implied and we are not subjected to the horrors of an over-graphic warts and all American telemovie.

This film has Brilliant performances from the main stars and it is impossible not to feel tormented anguish for the imprisoned boy (or indeed to feel like slowly torturing the man to death) so good is the acting. Hard as it is you will have to watch this movie to its end, the director torments us a fair bit in the last section of the film, but (spoiling it for you) this one won’t leave you sleepless.