It is always interesting when a film illustrates something in an indirect manner where instead of words as a vehicle for the telling of a story, it opts for the surreal and the realm of dreams.
Written and directed by Ramon Zurcher, Der Spatz im Kamin follows Karen (Maren Eggert) receiving her sister Jule (Britta Hammelstein) for the celebration of Markus's birthday (Andreas Döhler), Karen's husband. The idyllic scene of an isolated old house in the country that we are introduced to is soon contrasted to what is happening inside its walls. Secrets, lies, and unhealed wounds of childhood render family dynamics to be anything but ideal. Despite the occasional dialogues of a past that is better, at least to them, left unheeded, Zurcher manages to portray the characters psyche and what cannot be enacted in a direct manner because it would be too hurtful and risk chaos, that is, more than it is at present, through dream-like sequences, music, and allegory.
When families are thought to be harbors of love, the pinnacle and most important value of societies, in Zurcher's feature, they are unveiled and depicted as fertile soil for hatred, lies, anger, and anything but love. They are nothing short of sites of oppression that slowly stifle their members and deprive them of the joy they could have found if it wasn't for them.
