After being release from a mental institution, Milla (Dorkas Kieffer) is taken to her new home by her berating husband Gregor (Tobias Kay) and their daughter Madeleine (Aline Varty). As they settle at their new home, Milla begins experiencing a series of events that may be supernatural or may just be in her head. The key to whatever phenomenon is occurring on the house lays in her past, and the hole in the wall that keeps staring at her may be the answer to the mystery.
What are ghosts made of? Ghosts are made of memories; a memory of someone haunting the present with the constant reminder of its pain. The echoes of unresolved issues tear the walls of a house and stain the place, creating holes that work both ways when taking a peek through them. Milla knows she's being watched through the holes that appear to breathe and replicate throughout her home. Little echoes of things that happened long ago make their presence felt and heard like voices and sounds. This seems like typical haunted house events, but it's far more complicated than that. Milla doesn't necessarily witness a ghost, but feels it. It tries to remind her of something long forgotten, for that's what every ghost wants; they want people to remember. The mind is a fragile thing, and Milla's broken mind has made her vulnerable and susceptible to whatever ghosts may be haunting her house. The ghosts are the manifestation of Milla's pain, a pain she's kept within herself from long ago, a secret she's been carrying with her and that have in many ways built the house she lives in. It's difficult to know who is a ghost and who isn't. The people surrounding Milla's life seem quite alive, but then again they could all be echoes if things that resemble people, fragments of real things. It's hard to tell what is real and what a product of the mind is. The ghosts want Milla to remember, they want her to look through the hole in the wall and see what has caused her mind to break.
MILLA is a psychological horror thriller directed by Sandra Öhr on a micro budget over a period of six years and the results are quite impressive. For one, Sandra possesses a very varied visual arsenal; her framing and composition are clean and clear as well as her cinematography with the dense shadows and moody atmosphere that is heightened by well implemented color correction that give the film a dreamy look, and then it turns nightmarish, aided by some impressive visual FX that heighten the frame. Specs of dust, and the holes in the walls that resemble irises, subliminally telling us that we are being watched or that perhaps we should see through them. The short-film is not quite exactly a horror film and once the truth is revealed it becomes a study in trauma and how repressed memories can come to the surface in moments of extreme stress. Öhr splices the frame with a dream-like logic that makes us question what is a dream and what is a nightmare, for in the world of MILLA there is no way to tell. This is an impressive micro-budget film and we say "micro" because according to the filmmakers it was almost made for nothing, except by effort. Sandra and Thomas (her husband and producer) transformed their home into the set of their film, we are sure that it was a lovely home, but through some clever art direction they have turned it into a claustrophobic dark pit filled with secrets and ghostly specs of dust. The editing commands our attention, trying to figure out what is going on with every visual clue we are given. And when things get scary, the visuals become horrifying with the introduction of a ghoulish presence that is supremely creepy and cleverly shot around its design, it feels much more expensive that the budget suggests. As for the performances, Dorkas Kiefer as Milla has the task of carrying the film on her shoulders, and she succeeds at showing us the cracks in her character's psyche as well as the erosion on her personality that stress is causing her in her life, she's constantly haunted by her family, sounds and the house itself and she shows how grueling the effects are on her. Milla's husband, Gregor played by Tobias Kay pulls double duty as both cruel and concerned, surprisingly creepy at times and genuinely likable in other occasions. Aline Varty plays Milla's ethereal daughter as something out of a story-book. Overall, MILLA works as both supernatural suspense and psychological thriller, and more so as psychological study. An example of film-making ingenuity with little resources but a clear vision guiding through.
What are ghosts made of? Ghosts are made of memories; a memory of someone haunting the present with the constant reminder of its pain. The echoes of unresolved issues tear the walls of a house and stain the place, creating holes that work both ways when taking a peek through them. Milla knows she's being watched through the holes that appear to breathe and replicate throughout her home. Little echoes of things that happened long ago make their presence felt and heard like voices and sounds. This seems like typical haunted house events, but it's far more complicated than that. Milla doesn't necessarily witness a ghost, but feels it. It tries to remind her of something long forgotten, for that's what every ghost wants; they want people to remember. The mind is a fragile thing, and Milla's broken mind has made her vulnerable and susceptible to whatever ghosts may be haunting her house. The ghosts are the manifestation of Milla's pain, a pain she's kept within herself from long ago, a secret she's been carrying with her and that have in many ways built the house she lives in. It's difficult to know who is a ghost and who isn't. The people surrounding Milla's life seem quite alive, but then again they could all be echoes if things that resemble people, fragments of real things. It's hard to tell what is real and what a product of the mind is. The ghosts want Milla to remember, they want her to look through the hole in the wall and see what has caused her mind to break.
MILLA is a psychological horror thriller directed by Sandra Öhr on a micro budget over a period of six years and the results are quite impressive. For one, Sandra possesses a very varied visual arsenal; her framing and composition are clean and clear as well as her cinematography with the dense shadows and moody atmosphere that is heightened by well implemented color correction that give the film a dreamy look, and then it turns nightmarish, aided by some impressive visual FX that heighten the frame. Specs of dust, and the holes in the walls that resemble irises, subliminally telling us that we are being watched or that perhaps we should see through them. The short-film is not quite exactly a horror film and once the truth is revealed it becomes a study in trauma and how repressed memories can come to the surface in moments of extreme stress. Öhr splices the frame with a dream-like logic that makes us question what is a dream and what is a nightmare, for in the world of MILLA there is no way to tell. This is an impressive micro-budget film and we say "micro" because according to the filmmakers it was almost made for nothing, except by effort. Sandra and Thomas (her husband and producer) transformed their home into the set of their film, we are sure that it was a lovely home, but through some clever art direction they have turned it into a claustrophobic dark pit filled with secrets and ghostly specs of dust. The editing commands our attention, trying to figure out what is going on with every visual clue we are given. And when things get scary, the visuals become horrifying with the introduction of a ghoulish presence that is supremely creepy and cleverly shot around its design, it feels much more expensive that the budget suggests. As for the performances, Dorkas Kiefer as Milla has the task of carrying the film on her shoulders, and she succeeds at showing us the cracks in her character's psyche as well as the erosion on her personality that stress is causing her in her life, she's constantly haunted by her family, sounds and the house itself and she shows how grueling the effects are on her. Milla's husband, Gregor played by Tobias Kay pulls double duty as both cruel and concerned, surprisingly creepy at times and genuinely likable in other occasions. Aline Varty plays Milla's ethereal daughter as something out of a story-book. Overall, MILLA works as both supernatural suspense and psychological thriller, and more so as psychological study. An example of film-making ingenuity with little resources but a clear vision guiding through.
