The atmospheric story of a boy who says he can control his therapist’s actions with his thoughts focuses too much on philosophical questions
Therapist Dr Marianne Winter (Thekla Reuten) hopes to escape her own traumatic past in upstate
New York by taking up a position treating troubled children in a remote Scottish town. However, the forbidding Victorian municipal building that houses her new consulting room offers no sanctuary, and she’s soon unsettled by a 10-year-old patient (Elijah Wolf), who claims he can control her actions with his thoughts.
Repression (previously entitled Marionette) gamely endeavours to live up to the Hitchcockian promise of its title. It started out as a Dutch-language short by director Elbert van Strien 27 years ago, and here he knowingly utilises all the gothic potential of a new setting. As one visitor to Marianne’s rooms remarks: “Isn’t it a bit depressing? All this panelling, rip that out. You know what you need? Some nice bright white walls, little bit of uplighting.”