Jacob’s Ladder

It goes without saying that you often come across strange characters on the underground at night. In Jacob Singer’s case, however, these encounters leave him deeply shaken. Time and again, he is haunted by visions of death from his time in the Vietnam War – and the memory of his young son who died in an accident. Soon he imagines himself being hunted by demons as the victim of an army experiment, which he attempts to uncover with the help of former comrades … Time and again, the film leads viewers down the wrong track, shifts between different genres and defies clear explanations. The influence of its bizarre horror elements, however, extends far beyond cinema. A passion story about guilt, loss and letting go, condensed into feverish images that oscillate between paranoia, trauma and metaphysical visions.
(Florian Widegger)