Schlaf (2020)

The psychological horror film tells the story of a daughter who wants to help her mother and, in doing so, stumbles upon an old family secret. Three generations of women are connected to a village community plagued by a series of suicides. For years, 39-year-old Marlene has been tormented by intense nightmares: As a demonic figure, she drives the inhabitants of an unfamiliar village in a low mountain range insane. She has recorded these dreams in meticulous detail in her dream journals. When she happens to see pictures of the village of Stainbach in a travel journal, she recognizes it as the place where her dreams take place. She sets off there on impulse without telling her 19-year-old daughter, Mona. Once in Stainbach, Marlene experiences the real-world consequences of her dreams: She learns that her dreams have had frighteningly real consequences in the village. Marlene then suffers a breakdown, falls into a state of shock, and is no longer able to speak. She is admitted to a psychiatric clinic, where she lies in a deep, coma-like sleep. Her daughter Mona rushes to her aid. In Stainbach, Mona meets the married couple who run the hotel where her mother had been staying. They now want to help her find answers: What happened in Stainbach? What so deeply disturbed Marlene? Step by step, Mona gets closer to uncovering her family’s secret. The young woman encounters resistance not only from the locals but also dark spots in the history of the idyllic village: Mona discovers an explosives factory in the forest. Female forced laborers died there during the Nazi era. The young woman must confront the dark forces of the past—first in her dreams, but then the danger becomes real.