The Whore's Son

Despite the salacious sounding title, Austrian director Michael Sturminger's adaptation of Gabriel Loidolt's novel works better as a look at life among a family of Croatian immigrants in Vienna during the nightmare years of the Balkan conflicts than an exploration of the psychosexual tension between a prostitute and her son. The film opens with a shocking admission. Staring straight into the camea, a teenaged Ozren (Stanislav Lisnic) tells us that he has just killed his beautiful mother, Silvija (Chulpan Khamatova). The action then flashes back to reveal Ozren's upbringing as the only child of a mercurial, unmarried Croatian woman who supports herself and her son by ...