TorontoFilmFestival hidden gem: 'Pelican Blood' gives a terrifying take on childhood trauma
stars as Wiebke, a horse trainer and adoptive mother to a young Bulgarian girl. They share an idyllic life in the German countryside and want to add to it, traveling back to Bulgaria to adopt a second girl, the 6-year-old Raya. But shortly after the trip, Wiebke’s new daughter begins to act out in increasingly erratic and violent ways, claiming she is being provoked by a dark spirit.
is no horror movie. Or, at least, it’s not a classic horror film. The movie’s central symbol, a pelican mother who feeds her young with her own blood, becomes a metaphor for Weibke’s willingness to do whatever it takes to forge a bond with her adopted child. But when Wiebke begins to carry Raya around like an infant, taking hormones to trigger breast milk production so she can nurse the 6-year-old girl, the film moves into darker territory.
"I found it interesting to start the movie out as a classic drama and then, slowly, twist and twist the story toward something more disturbing, more creepy," says Gebbe. "I think one of the flaws in many horror films is that as soon as they shift away from reality, toward a fantastic or supernatural explanation, it stops being scary. Real horror should stay on the edge of reality.
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