Little Vampire (1968) Bübchen

Director: Roland Klick
Starring: Sascha Urchs, Sieghardt Rupp, Edith Volkmann, Renate Roland, Jürgen Jung, Hubert Suschka

In a german suburb a babysitter is too busy with her own teenage business and leaves a boy with his little sister alone. Then the girl is missing. The only way the family and society are able to deal with the horror is to ignore it and hide the truth in the closet.

This little-known drama by director Roland Klick introduces a prototype working-class family in a drab German suburb during the post-Wirtschaftswunder dip. The relationships between neighbor families, between local schoolboys, between middle-aged father and teen daughter, between man and neighbor's wife - the relations that define social morals of a community - may seem exaggerated in some parts of the screenplay, but definitely a necessity in this particular story. The characters are well-written, especially the young protagonist's father, the neighbor's daughter and her drunk father. Klick's direction is minimal, utilitarian with a conscious avoidance of cinematic flair both in terms of visuals and soundtrack. And that enables the film's bleak, nihilistic, somewhat disturbing plotline flourish like a naturally-growing cactus in a desert. As the story unfolded, I was often reminded of Michael Haneke's 'Benny's Video' and indeed there are some similarities in the thematic content like juvenile jealousy and how far parents go to protect their children. Although this film happens in a more 'generic' setting, and lacks the social complexity of the Haneke title, a predictable yet very well-written ending definitely makes it memorable.

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