When teenager Luca (Maja Bons) wants to watch the film of her birth, she finds it on YouTube. Same with the sweet, thoughtful chat her mum gave her about periods when she was nine or 10; it was filmed in the family’s podcast studio. None of life’s special moments go unmonetised in this satire from Germany, a horror story of family dysfunction. It’s a look at the dark side of the family influencer industry, raising just about every possible ethical question about parents vlogging their kids’ childhoods, and it’s impressively disturbing, up to a point.
Sixteen-year-old Luca is the only child of Stella (Bea Brocks) and Chris (Liliom Lewald), social media stars who make viral videos of their perfect-looking family life for their 4 million followers. They live in a beautiful, sterile minimalist home in the countryside, and we often watch them through CCTV cameras fitted in every room. Shrewdly, first time film-maker Joscha Bongard doesn’t portray Stella and Chris as monsters; they love their daughter Luca, who they affectionately call Nunki. But fundamentally they do their best parenting in front of the camera, all bright smiles and proud affectionate glances.
One day the couple tell Luca that they’re thinking about having another child. It’s hard to know what to make of this. Do they want a baby, or to increase branding opportunities with pregnancy and baby content? Their daughter hates the idea. Bons gives a brilliantly subtle performance as Luca, her face almost blank apart from twitches of tension in her cheek. Her mum wants to do a video about Luca’s feelings about the new baby; after all, personal videos get the most clicks. But Luca rebels and moves out. It’s a shame that all the tension and claustrophobia trapped in the house follows her out the door – and the last section of the film is a bit mannered by comparison.
• Babystar is in UK and Irish cinemas from 25 September.
