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Filmstill Hikikomori
Hikikomori
Fiction Short
15 min
Director | Mats Süthoff
2023 | not released yet

HIKIKOMORI tells the story of a young woman who has been in a state of voluntary isolation for five years. We accompany her in her struggle with her inner and outer demons, with her loneliness and fantasy, with nightmares and a hostile outside world.

We are familiar with the phenomenon "hikikomori" from Japan. In Japan an estimated one million people now live in a state of complete isolation from the outside world. The cause is usually a traumatic experience, coupled with high social pressure and social expectations.

 

Our protagonist lives in her three-room apartment in a large city in Germany. She has settled in well: In her world, different laws prevail. The boundary between reality and fantasy has been torn down. Her identity is increasingly dissolving, her imagination alternately becomes friend and foe - which doesn't bother her much: the strategies of repression are too deeply ingrained. If only there weren't this omnipresent outside! The neighbor who constantly brings over soup. The mother who desperately tries to save her. And the pack of policemen who stand outside the door and simply won't leave. Until the situation escalates.

Filmstill Hikikomori
Filmstill Hikikomori
Filmstill Hikikomori

CAST&CREW

 

THE GIRL - PAULINA ALPEN

THE MOTHER - ANNA STEFFENS

THE PSYCHOLOGIST - ELISABETH GÜNTHER

THE NEIGHBOR - DUNJA SOWINETZ

THE BOYFRIEND - MARIO NEUMANN

FRIENDS - GESA GEUE, FRIEDERIKE LANGE, WASSIL DAMJANOV

YOUNG POLICEMAN - LION BAUMANN

POLICE - LION BAUMANN, FABIAN BAUMGARTEN, JAKOB ARNOLD, LUCAS MARZ

RICHARD WEGENER 

THE CAT - MANNI

CONCEPT - PAULINA ALPEN, JOHANNA HEHEMEYER-CÜRTEN, JAKOB ARNOLD, WASSIL DAMJANOV, BENNJAMIN SCHNEIDER, MATS SÜTHOFF

BOOK - JAKOB ARNOLD

SCRIPT - JAKOB ARNOLD, MATS SÜTHOFF

PRODUCTION - PAULINA ALPEN, MATS SÜTHOFF

DIRECTOR - MATS SÜTHOFF

CINEMATOGRAPHY - MATS SÜTHOFF

CAMERA ASSISTANCE - JOHANN KRESSIN

SET & COSTUME DESIGN - JOHANNA HEHEMEYER-CÜRTEN

ASSISTANCE - FRIEDERIKE LANGE

HAIR & MAKE UP - MARE JAESCHKE, LEONIE BUSE

MUSIC - WASSIL DAMJANOV

VOICE - SARAI O´GARA

CUT - MATS SÜTHOFF, PAULINA ALPEN

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