Hagazussa

Short on narrative clarity and dialogue but thick with evocative atmosphere and disturbing imagery, filmmaker Lukas Feigelfeld’s debut feature is set in the Austrian Alps during the 15th century, where Martha (Claudia Martini)—shunned by neighbors and a local priest, who all think she’s a witch—lives in an isolated cabin with her daughter Albrun (Celina Peter). After Martha dies of a terrible wasting illness, Albrun grows into a young woman (Aleksandra Cwen) with an infant of her own but no husband in sight. She too is ostracized by the community, but a neighbor (Tanja Petrovsky) offers her friendship—only to horribly betray her. The distraught “hagazussa” (an Old German term for “witch”) Albrun—who has heard her dead mother calling her from a distance—descends into madness (or perhaps embraces her predestined role) in two hallucinatory final sequences titled “Blood” and “Fire” that are both unsettling and extremely difficult to watch, although Cwen anchors them with her stunningly compelling performance. Hagazussa is not for everyone, but can serve as a complement to Robert Eggers’s equally unnerving The Witch (even sharing some eerie symbolism involving goats). A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)