In Theaters 08.01.2025 or Watch at Home 11.07.2025

The Sparrow in the Chimney

Directed by Ramon Zürcher
Film Movement
2024
117 Minutes
Switzerland
German
Drama
Not Rated
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Karen, along with her husband Markus and their children, lives in her childhood home, left behind after the death of her mother. When her sister, Jule, visits with her family to celebrate Markus’s birthday, the weekend opens old wounds and past traumas, unleashing repressed feelings that threaten to destroy their relationship and shatter Karen’s grip on reality.

The latest film from acclaimed writer and director Ramon Zücher (The Girl and The Spider), The Sparrow in the Chimney is a “darkly engrossing psychodrama of pent-up domestic tensions.” (Variety) With “deep, bold dives into the nightmarish and the surreal” and a venomously comedic touch, this is the “rare film that feels like a catharsis for protagonist and director both.” (The Film Stage)

Director & Cast

  • Director: Ramon Zürcher
  • Starring: Maren Eggert
  • Starring: Britta Hammelstein
  • Starring: Luise Heyer
  • Starring: Andreas Döhler
  • Starring: Milian Zerzawy

Where to Watch

Trailer

Photos

Reviews

  • "While the writer/director maintains the strong sense of everyday relationships and realism from his previous films, his more ambitious approach pays off to deliver an emotionally volatile portrait of a family in flux, complete with ambiguous motives and unexpected transformations."
    Amber Wilkinson, Screen Daily
  • "More heated than their first two features, this darkly engrossing psychodrama of pent-up domestic tensions should be an arthouse breakthrough for Switzerland's gifted Zürcher brothers."
    Guy Lodge, Variety
  • "Ramon Zürcher’s utterly distinctive talent for twisting the domestic into the uncanny gains intensity in a cutting psychological horror as thrilling as it is elliptical and dark. German actress Maren Eggert, who also starred in Angela Schanelec’s 2019 festival darling I Was at Home, But, is enigmatic and mesmerizing to watch as Karen."
    Carmen Gray, The Film Verdict
  • "Incredibly original, and directed with great pathos, The Sparrow in the Chimney is bolstered by inventive use of effects (…) The Sparrow in the Chimney is a work of tremendous beauty and fragility."
    Eoghan Lyng, Dirty Movies
  • "Zürcher’s blocking is precise and continually inventive, seeking to disrupt the established boundaries between different characters in order to complicate their behavior and interactions with each other."
    David Robb, Slant Magazine
  • "[A] truly exceptional but profoundly disconcerting family drama. Maren Eggert and Britta Hammelstein deliver spellbinding performances playing polar opposites."
    Matthew Joseph Jenner, ICS (International Cinephile Society)
  • "With metaphysical turns, ‘The Sparrow in the Chimney’ is an exquisitely controlled drama whose formal rigor belies sorrow, mystery, and hope."
    Debanjan Dhar, High On Films
  • "It’s hard to imagine a better ending to the Zürchers’ trilogy, as they’ve realized a credo that more commercial filmmakers have always known: subtlety is no match for an explosion."
    Zach Lewis, In Review Online
  • "Maren Eggert gives a captivating turn as a woman who fears she’s become her mother in Ramon Zürcher’s inspired take on a haunted house film. Filled with a sense of dread that won’t be uncommon to some in how they approach their own family reunions, “The Sparrow in the Chimney” offers the same sense of relief when it’s all over, not only because of the wrenching drama it depicts, but the fresh air of its singular storytelling."
    Stephen Saito, Moveable Fest
  • "With its deep, bold dives into the nightmarish and the surreal, The Sparrow in the Chimney is that rare film that feels like a catharsis for protagonist and director both."
    Leonardo Goi, The Film Stage
  • "The Sparrow in the Chimney is a bold and thoughtful conclusion to the animal trilogy.... What begins as a Chekhovian drama evolves into a Freudian spectacle, ultimately becoming a surreal and cynical reflection on family life, not for the faint of heart."
    Martin Kudlac, Screen Anarchy
  • "A kind of dystopic fairy tale with horror film overtones, the movie transports the audience to a cruel but sincere world where people have freed themselves from the dictates of a society intent on assigning roles to each of us at birth, and are finally discovering their true, wild, defiant, animal nature."
    Giorgia Del Don, Cineuropa
  • "A film dipped in venom, often funny and deeply unsettling in how it portrays families who don’t feel the need to hide their vitriol behind pleasantries."
    Zachary Lee, RogerEbert.com
Winner
Best Editing
German Film Critics Awards
Nominated
Best Film
Locarno Int'l. Film Festival
Nominated
People's Choice Award
Pingyao Int'l. Film Festival
Nominated
Best Film
Pingyao Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
Melbourne Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
Vancouver Int'l. Film Festival

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