The misfortune, of Michael Stürminger's low-boil melodrama is that it's entirely too familiar. Underneath the movie's cool surface beats the heart of a 1940s tear-jerker. It's a subzero "Stella Dallas."
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New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Austrian director Michael Sturminger's debut feature creates a visually evocative environment in which to explore some significant themes, from religious repression to Freudian guilt.
In the end, Sturminger's virginal insistence on draining the mother-son relationship of all eros also drains it of interest.
Adapted from a novel by Gabriel Loidolt, this is most interesting for its textured family history and pained religiosity.
Works better as a look at life among a family of Croatian immigrants in Vienna during the nightmare years of the Balkan conflicts than an exploration of the psychosexual tension between a prostitute and her son.
Modestly entertaining.