The Sands Of Time

8 Remains (also known as 8 Doors)
Stars: Maja-Celine Probst, Gregory B. Waldis, Priscilla Wittman, Anne Alexander Sieder and Kevin Leslie
Director: Juliane Block
Scriptwriters: Wolf-Peter Arand and Laura Sommer
Composer: Ilia Eshkenazy Jossifov
Cinematographers: Marc Oberdorfer and Marcus Schwemin
Aquaset/J-Blockbuster Films
Rating: no rating but could be R for sexual content and assault
Running length: 80 minutes 

Do you go to the movies to be shocked?  The beginning of “8 Remains” will do just that, and from then on, it is a race against time for the victim to get out of this surreal predicament that has formed from the mind of another.  It reminds one of “Twilight Zone” episodes when the end of the show is coming and the audience isn’t sure who will win, the heroine, the villain or the television slot running out of time.  Hourglass time in “8 Remains” has special meaning, too. 

We enter the world of 19-year-old Talli (Maja-Celine Probst) and her date with the older, handsome Damian (Gregory B. Waldis who does evil nicely.) The villain (and you could imagine him with a swirling, black cloak)  and the victim are given us at the beginning of the film, and then it is a race to leave the place Talli is in and go back to her life. Damian, you see, has killed her. Talli is now enclosed in a bubble and she can see out, but people can’t see her.  There is a limited time to get out or stay there. How to go about this escape? Talli travels through many rooms and meets saddened women who have been victimized by the killer. However, during such travels, Talli discovers herself and family relationships…and she is not perfect.  It is an emotional journey that actress Maja-Celine Probst does well.. 

The script by Wolf-Peter Arand and Laura Sommer explores male dominance, female subservience, a psychopathic mind, murder and suicide. The scene where Talli speaks to a classmate who committed suicide, is meaningful in what happens when we drift away from someone and think nothing of it. For every action---somewhere---there is a reaction. 

Cinematography by Marc Oberdorfer and Marcus Schwemin moves well with the situations Talli finds herself in, and this includes variations in lighting.  Composer Ilia Eshkenazy Jossifov has just the right music for each new situation Talli goes into. Priscilla Wittman as the older Talli gives a moving scene in which she doesn’t know her name, and this is reminiscent of Emily Dickinson’s famous poem, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” 

From the beginning of the film, with the setting of a country manor house and antique furnishings to drab rooms to pastoral settings to a kitchen, the audience is caught up with the where-or-when-or ever will there be an answer.  I liked the layers of the story being slowly unwrapped, and just when you think around the corner is a solution…try again.  


Copyright 2019 Marie Asner