Roula (1995)

Successful children's book author Leon lost his wife in a motorcycle accident two years ago. Since then, he has found no joy in life and has suffered from writer's block and depression. Hoping for a distraction and inspiration for a new book, he takes his eleven-year-old daughter, Tanja, to Denmark for a few weeks. At a bungalow park on the beach, he meets Roula, who runs the holiday resort there with her father. Leon is immediately fascinated by the young woman. But she keeps her distance, and he senses that she is hiding a secret. Little by little, he uncovers her past and begins to suspect that, ever since her mother's suicide, she has been sexually abused and psychologically manipulated by her pedophile father. When he confronts the shy woman, who still represses the abuse, she is overwhelmed, retreats, and takes her father's side. Roula's friend, who knows Leon as an author, warns him about the seriousness of Roula's problems and advises him to focus instead on his children's stories. Later, in despair, Leon throws one of his books into the fire. While Leon tries to start a new work, Tanja plays alone on the beach. Roula angrily accuses him of not keeping a close enough eye on her and admonishes him to take more responsibility for Tanja. Roula's father makes several attempts to get close to Tanja under various pretexts. Shortly afterward, Roula catches her father photographing Tanja, who is half-naked. Horrified, she confronts him, saying that “he already has her,” and finally voices her incomprehension about what he intends to do with the strange girl now. The Polaroids Roula's father took of Tanja come into Leon's possession. Alarmed, he drives to the Sievers' house. There, Roula has retreated to her room and is pressing a stuffed animal to herself as she cries, while at the same time stabbing one of her wrists with a pair of scissors. Her father storms into the room, snatches the stuffed animal from her, and throws it into an open fire. He then forces her to cut his hair and afterward to pleasure him in the bathtub, as usual. However, instead of bath products, Roula has put a flammable liquid into the bathwater. When her father is lying in the tub, she sets the bathroom alight with a match and runs away, while her father burns alive. Leon meets her in the hallway and realizes what she has done. In the final shot, Leon and Roula bury the body in concrete together at a playground on the beach.