Michael

Synopsis
A respectable man hides a monstrous secret in this harrowing drama from Austrian filmmaker Markus Schleinzer. Michael (Michael Fuith) is a seemingly average man in his mid-thirties who works for an insurance firm. He is good at his job, is friendly with his co-workers, gets along well with his siblings, and has a tidy home in the suburbs. But Michael is also a sexual predator obsessed with young boys, and he hides a ten-year-old child, Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger), in his cellar as his slave. He frequently tells Wolfgang that his parents don't want him back, and while he takes good care of the boy, he also forces the child to have sex with him whenever he wishes. MICHAEL follows the title character's double life over the course of five months, as he presents the image of an ordinary man to the world during the day and gives free reign to his ugliest desires at night. MICHAEL was an official selection at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Reviews
4 stars out of 5 -- "Schleinzer adopts an austere, typically 'arthouse' approach: hence the restrained performances, the troubling silences, the controlled camerawork, and the muted colour palette." (Total Film)

"MICHAEL is an extraordinarily polished debut, and a fine example of the type of neo-modernist, socially scathing scathing cinema that Austrian filmmakers do so well." (Sight and Sound)