http://www.ventura-film.de/filme/dasfremdeinmir/dasfremdeinmir.htm#Pressestimmen
Clippings
"One of the most powerful surviving social taboos [...] is turned into a small but resonant drama in [...] one of the highlights of this year´s Critic´s Week in Cannes.THE STRANGER IN ME is lifted by a finely-structured script of surprising thematic depth, a sure feel for cinematic composition and lighting, and above all by a strong cast led by a magnetic Susanne Wolff, who makes us sympathise with a woman whose behaviour is, by most people´s standards, repellent....
It´s the very soberness of Atef´s approach that makes this such a powerful drama"
Lee Marshall, Screen Daily
"A film that keeps its promises from the beginning to the end."
Le Film Francais
"The power of the film is to show us the sensations of the protagonist without scarifying the other characters...No simple black-and-white opposition in the tuned portraits, a great work on the dosage of both the script and the realization; the direction of the actors is quasi flawless."
Positif
"It is a disturbing film which breaks the taboo of innate and obligatory maternal love, albeit without hysteria and outrageousness. The director does not pontificate or favor any particular thesis, which helps her avoid the potentially disturbing feel of a documentary analysis.
In league with Susanne Wolff, her (superb) interpreter (her body closes up upon itself, her face shuts down, leaving alive only the eyes which seem to be constantly searching for help), Emily Atef shows the abrupt steps of a fall and the slow possibilities of healing.
Contrary to the cinema of exhibitionistic bravado so popular today, its theme imposes itself slowly but surely, through its delicacy and its love of the characters, all of whom are generous without being simplistic. We come out of this lyrical and peaceful film feeling strangely moved."
Pierre Murat, Télérama
"A profoundly moving film, abounding in delicate touches. It is a very skilful film, with an entire gamut of false tracks which provoke our reflection on a drama that can happen to everybody."
Christophe Berjon, Semaine de la Critique
"A taboo subject if there ever was one [...], it is treated here with great sensitivity. Without being asked to judge, we enter into the mind of this woman to try to understand [...] we follow with empathy the battle of this mother who is searching for her lost loves... until the final deliverance, which is just and touching."
Marion Haudebourg, evene.fr
"A dramatic itinerary seen from a very feminine perspective and reconstructed with precision by a filmmaker who prefers silence to psychological explanations, the truthfulness of her characters to effects of sympathy, and a visual realism very close to the actors to the temptation of beautiful images."
Fabien Lemercier, cineuropa.org
"This theme of post-partum depression, which is still a taboo today in many societies, is treated in depth in this film by Emily Atef. Throughout the film, she also takes into account the protagonist´s surroundings and comes back in the closing scene to the picture – albeit broken – of mother, father and child that the viewer had expected at the beginning."
Anke von Appen/Roland Koch, Zitty Online
"Atef´s challenge is to movingly relate this development without falling prey to an excess of emotionalism or tragedy, aiming instead at a narrative, emotional and visual coherence. The film lives through this continuous challenge, maintaining its underlying thesis [...] and is part of a collective structure. It is the logic of family, of control, of the roles of society which are not acquired but established."
Cristina Piccino, Il Manifesto
"A strong and touching film on post-partum depression. In her very poetic portrait of this illness, Emily Atef breaks the taboo which surrounds it in our Western societies. DAS FREMDE IN MIR can allow women to free themselves from the hatred that they feel in the grip of this illness and to finally talk about it."
Jorine Gebbink/Pauline Proffit, muzeblog.fr
"Emily Atef relates this dramatic story full of intimate moments with the most economical of means - and with a radicalness that one would wish to find more often in German cinema. Susanne Wolf as Rebecca is a discovery."
Gudula Moritz, 3 Sat
"Johann von Bülow and Susanne Wolf play with great psychological intensity."
Christoph Schmitz, Deutschlandfunk
“By putting the humanity of the protagonist first, her story is the basis for a compelling narrative that is easily accessible for a larger audience than the exotic topic might at first seem to suggest... Atef also offers little clues in terms of geography, which ... has the effect of making it a even more universal story, borrowing from the Berlin school”
Boyd van Hoeij, european-films.net
May 28th 2008 STRANGER is a lyrical and peaceful film, says TELERAMA
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