MON 27 OCT AT 5PM UGC SHAFTESBURY AVE SCREEN 2

Sylvia is taking her new stepchildren to nearby Poland to go shopping. However, after too many back-seat fights, little voices repeating everything she says and kicks in the back of her seat, she has had enough. Ordering them out of the car, she drives off. But when she returns to the spot where she left them, little Lea (Conrad) and Constantine (Bruckmann) are gone. So, after a pitiful amount of time looking for them, Sylvia, played brilliantly by Judith Engel, returns home to Germany. Afraid of losing her husband's love, Sylvia decides it is best not to tell him what she's done. By the time Josef (Marx) realises they're missing, Lea and Constantine have been wandering the Polish countryside for days. They fall upon a free-living van-driver called Cuba (Baka), who promises to take them home. He doesn't - until he hears of the reward offered for their safe return. But will Lea and Constantine ever get home to their despairing father? And how can the cold, emotionless Sylvia live with what she has done? This modern-day Hansel and Gretel, with its compelling look at human blindness and ignorance is director Hochh 0usler's first feature film, and is well worth the wait.

Roles are reversed as Lea and Constantine play the brave survivors in an alien world, and grown-ups Sylvia and Cuba are unable to see and deal with the real world. ALK

Born in Munich in 1972, Christoph Hochh 0usler has worked as a storyboard artist, sound recordist and First AD. He co-wrote and directed the short film Fieber in 1998. This is his debut feature.