Earwig (2021)

“You have a week to prepare her to be on the outside.” The chilling, emotionless instructions come over the phone to a creepy, unfeeling, shell of a man. This man, Albert, treats a ten-year-old girl in his charge like she is a machine or an experiment, not like the child that she is. Albert does not let her out of the house. He changes her braces of metal and ice, feeds her, and little else. The little girl dutifully follows his instructions and submits to the darkness and control. The meaning of it all is unclear.Earwig is a perplexing, eerie, bizarre, shocking, and fascinating puzzle to unravel. It is full of colorful sequences of light that reflect the emotional states of characters. It is unsettling, strange, and disturbing, yet entrancing and radiant. By bending reality, immersing you in low light and moody music, and with flashbacks, the film brings you into a Kafka-like story. There are so many questions left unanswered; a girl diving into water, a woman watching, stabbings, surprising emotional shifts, a girl singing that triggers deep emotions, and so much more.In an introduction to the film the director encourages the audience to keep an open mind. Try to keep your head from exploding is better advice.World premiere seen at the Toronto international film festival. English is the spoken language of this film based on a novel by Brian Catling. Not streaming anywhere yet.