First Feature Competition Audience Award

The extraordinary debut film by Pascal Schuh tells the story of Kasimir, a burglar who uses a couch with a secret compartment to break into people’s homes and covertly film their private moments. The recordings are given to Dr. Liebermann, who watches them in a ritual-like study of human emotions.

“Interior” is a crystalline, voyeuristic cinematic journey that makes the viewer question the thin line between abuse and being abused, morality and empathy, tenderness and the strangeness of human experience. The abusive relationship is portrayed with an unsettling sensitivity, leaving the audience feeling trapped, much like being caught in the embrace of a praying mantis. The viewer will be drawn into the film’s slightly eerie atmosphere, a ritual dance of genius, dream, and cruelty. The film unfolds in a stylistically flawless structure, a martial-like architecture that links the provocative act of spying and observing the vulnerabilities of others, to an inseparable bond with human compassion.

A dazzling cinematic experience, and I’m convinced that this couch is already an iconic piece of cinematic history.

Fabio Tucci