The Sparrow in the Chimney

2024 1h 57m DE

😐

5.8

MID

★5.8TMDB · 12

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Karen and Markus live with their children in Karen’s parents’ house. Karen’s sister Jule travels with her family to Markus’ birthday party. While Karen takes everyone’s breath away with her domineering manner, Jule is the complete opposite. Gradually a front forms against Karen until everything escalates into a fiery inferno. An inferno that destroys the old to create the new.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Maren Eggert
Karen
Britta Hammelstein
Jule
Luise Heyer
Liv
Andreas Döhler
Markus
Milian Zerzawy
Jurek
Lea Zoë Voss
Johanna
Paula Schindler
Christina
Ilja Bultmann
Leon

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ramon Zürcher
Writers: Ramon Zürcher
Languages: German
Countries: Switzerland

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 2 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ramon Zürcher, shot by Alex Hasskerl. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Balz Bachmann. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ramon Zürcher shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Maren Eggert and Britta Hammelstein and Luise Heyer carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt32359054 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

Only 12 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ramon Zürcher directs. Alex Hasskerl behind the camera. Balz Bachmann scores. Ramon Zürcher cuts. Produced in Switzerland. Dialogue in German.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 2 years ago.
2Directed by Ramon Zürcher, shot by Alex Hasskerl. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Balz Bachmann. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Ramon Zürcher shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Maren Eggert and Britta Hammelstein and Luise Heyer carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt32359054 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Only 12 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Alex Hasskerl
Original score: Balz Bachmann
Editing: Ramon Zürcher
Production design: Peter Scherz
Costume design: Linda Harper
Makeup / hair: Nicole Zingg
Sound: Ramon Zürcher
Runtime: 117 min · 1h 57m
Status: Released
Original language: DE
IMDB: The Sparrow in the Chimney (2024)

Also by

Ramon Zürcher

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2024-10-25
★ 1/10
To be blunt, I really dislike arthouse films that give the genre a bad name, yet writer-director Ramon Zürcher’s third feature outing regrettably does just that. This pretentious, meandering exercise in allegedly profound cinema falls flat shortly after it begins and never recovers, growing ever more pointless, unfocused and self-important as it unfolds. Set in the rural childhood home of two very different and quietly combative sisters (Maren Eggert, Britta Hammelstein), the film follows the events associated with a birthday celebration involving the siblings and their families. As the festivities (if they can be called that) begin to play out, however, it quickly becomes apparent that this party will go anything but smoothly given its cast of largely reprehensible characters, nearly all of whom utter their hate-filled insults with stoically deadpan monotone delivery. This examination of a seriously troubled family, in turn, increasingly draws heavily from “The Big Book of Domestic Dysfunctional Drama,” with virtually every character possessing a crippling physical and/or psychological disorder, qualities that shape their pervasively ugly demeanors. This hodgepodge of elements is thus employed in a futile attempt to build some type of cohesive narrative, presumably in an effort to depict the descent into madness. But this goal is never adequately realized, thanks in large part to a wealth of superficial, pedestrian dialogue that tries mightily to pass itself off as enigmatically “meaningful” and several preposterous surreal segments that are all show and no substance, sequences that resemble scenes out of “Carrie” (1976) or “Firestarter” (1984) if those films had been directed by Ingmar Bergman. And, no matter how much the filmmaker seeks to cover up these innate weaknesses by embellishing them with stunning still life cinematography, the strains of atmospheric classical music and long, lingering facial close-ups, the overall mix of elements just doesn’t work, growing progressively more muddled, laughable and tedious as this tiresome offering wears on…and on…and on. To make matters worse, though, the film also incorporates some positively repugnant images, such as a young woman slicing up her bloody hand on a cheese grater and a cat being locked into a washing machine that’s subsequently switched on, a shamefully disgusting sequence that’s wholly uncalled for, regardless of how simulated it may have been. It’s beyond me how this disastrous project got the green light to begin with, but this is handily one of the worst films of 2024, one that doesn’t deserve whatever attention and accolades it may erroneously garner.

Production companies