In a well-mounted, well-realized mid-1970s Germany, the vulnerable yet wilful Michaela (Huller) goes to university against the wishes of her religiously overbearing mother (Kogge), and with the quiet support of her supportive father (Klaubner).

At uni, Michaela befriends an old school friend Hanna (Blomeier), and embarks on a delicate relationship with fellow student Stefan (Reinke).

For fifty minutes a sense of dread underscores Michaela’s blossoming, with ongoing references to a past "illness" diagnosed as epilepsy by a legion of stumped doctors.

Following two seizures Michaela seeks solace in her priest who scorns her claims of demonic possession, and a doctor who links her up to medical equipment located somewhere between neurology and medieval torture.

The final part of Requiem threatens to enter stroppy, potty-mouthed girl cliché as Michaela’s mood swings become increasingly violent and disturbing.

But, Requiem succeeds due to director Schmid’s decision to eschew frightwigs, pea soup vomit and foul language, and never show the demons Michaela claims haunt her.

Shooting with a documentary style, extensively using handheld camera and sparse music cues, Schmid draws perfectly played and believable performances from his cast.

Kogge’s overbearing mother could easily have slipped into bible-bashing cartoon, but is played as a woman unable to adapt to the changing mood of the times, while Klabner‘s sympathetic father is the film’s emotional anchor.

But, Requiem belongs to Huller, whose raw performance is both unsettling and heartbreaking and thoroughly deserving of the Best Actress prize it nabbed her at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival.

Whereas The Exorcism of Emily Rose paid scant lip service to the fact that Emily might be mentally ill before getting knee deep in supernatural grue, Requiem offers far more rational explanations for Michaela’s condition.

See-sawing between devout Catholicism and a violent aversion to religious iconography, coupled with the onset of disturbed, sexual visions when she meets Stefan, Michaela is clearly bi-polar.

Due to the film’s belief that Michaela is not demonically possessed (she only becomes agitated when she goes off her meds), the climax, with two well-meaning but misguided priests (one young, one old) conducting the first of many exorcisms, is as horrifying and upsetting as The Exorcist, but for very different reasons.

Acutely observed, beautifully played and deeply troubling, Requiem is one of the most significant horror films in years.

Rob Daniel