Der Besucher

I saw this incredible film many years ago, but its impact has stayed with me. A disaffected social worker, preparing to retire, in a state of despair investigates an apartment, as a last assignment, where a family has commited suicide. While he and his replacement look at the total chaos and filth of the place, he notices a closet door open ever so slightly. In the closet he discovers a young woman...comes to realize she was kept there all her life by her family. He decides to move in, clean up the place and slowly win the young woman's trust, until she's willing to come out. The interaction between them is profoundly moving. She's unable to speak and is severely retarded, but at the movie's end she's able to accept her fate, goes with the authorities to an institution. Through his act of devotion and even a kind of love, the man finds himself renewed. The performances, especially by the two main characters, is astonishingly real and unsentimentally compelling. It should be shown at every film festival, the world over, in my opinion.