Das Haus der Krokodile (2012)
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Directors
Cast
Thomas Ohrner, Katja Weitzenböck, Christoph Maria Herbst, Vijessna Ferkic, Gudrun Ritter, Kristo Ferkic, Dieter Schaad, Joanna Ferkic, Uwe Friedrichsen, Waldemar Kobus
Alone in an eerie family villa, an eleven-year-old follows a dead girl’s diary to uncover a long-buried mystery.
The story
After the Laroche family moves into an old villa belonging to an uncle, eleven-year-old Viktor is left there with his sisters while their parents travel for business. Exploring the house, he sees a dark figure in a mirror and wonders whether a burglar is inside. His search leads him to a hidden diary belonging to Cäcilie, an eleven-year-old girl who died in the villa years earlier after falling down the staircase. Following the diary’s cryptic clues, Viktor encounters small stuffed crocodiles and draws the attention of the suspicious neighbor, Frau Debisch, who tries to stop his investigations. Viktor becomes convinced that the house conceals a secret about Cäcilie’s death.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
The Laroche family has just moved into an old, eerie villa belonging to an uncle. When the parents leave on a business trip, eleven-year-old Viktor is left at home alone with his two sisters, Luise and Cora. While exploring the house, he is horrified to spot a dark figure in a mirror. A burglar? The curious boy tries to find out and, in the course of his investigations, discovers a secret hiding place containing the diary of a girl named Cäcilie. Years ago, when she was eleven, Cäcilie died in the house after falling down the staircase under unexplained circumstances. Fascinated, Viktor leafs through the yellowed book and follows its cryptic clues through the old villa. Again and again, he comes across small stuffed crocodiles with empty eye sockets. Viktor’s investigations do not go unnoticed. He clashes with the dubious neighbor, Frau Debisch, who tries to stop his detective work. Does she know what happened back then? Did she have something to do with the girl’s death, and is she perhaps in cahoots with the mysterious lodger, Strichninsky? Viktor senses that he is on the trail of a great secret and, against all odds, tries to break the family’s silence. Using the diary, he manages to find diamonds that Uncle Gustav once smuggled from Africa to Germany and that Cäcilie had hidden in a chandelier. It turns out that the burglar Viktor saw was Frau Debisch’s son, who knew about the diamonds and was searching for them. Viktor also manages to discover what caused Cäcilie’s fatal fall: she suffered from epilepsy and had hidden the pills she was supposed to take to prevent seizures in Gustav’s grandfather clock. During an epileptic seizure on the staircase, she fell over the railing to her death in front of Frau Debisch. Frau Debisch had blamed herself ever since, because she was responsible for regularly giving Cäcilie her medication and believed she had forgotten to do so before the fatal seizure. Viktor shows her the pills he found in the clock, thereby relieving Frau Debisch’s conscience.
Genres
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