# Nightsiren

Nightsiren (Slovak: Svetlonoc, Czech: Světlonoc) is a 2022 Slovak-Czech feminist psychological horror drama by director Tereza Nvotová. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Golden Leopard – Filmmakers of the Present award.

## Plot

While running away from her abusive mother, Šarlota accidentally pushes her sister Tamara off a cliff.
Many years later, in current day, Šarlota, now a young adult, returns to the village, summoned by a letter from the mayor, requesting her to claim her mother's inheritance. Because she ran away as a child and was never found, she's met with distrust and superstition: She and her sister had been claimed to have been taken by an accused witch, Otyla, a neighbour of their childhood home.
Told that the mayor is away through the Easter holidays, Šarlota settles into her old, burnt-out home. She befriends a local, Mira, and goes on to spend a lot of time with her. Mira and Šarlota bond over a discontent for local traditions and superstitions, but aren't able to avoid them, since the local community is tight-knit and prioritises them even over modern-day customs and knowledge like consensual sexual behaviour or disinfecting wounds. When some locals throw a fighting Mira into a lake, as part of a tradition, and attempt the same with a screaming Šarlota, Šarlota kicks an onlooking child and is not believed when she asserts that it was an accident.
Šarlota and Mira are joined by another local, Helena, who presents non-conforming and confesses to Šarlota to be in love with Mira, but ultimately follows local traditions like her devout mother, Anna, and violent father, Tomáš. She mentions towards Šarlota that Otyla was taking care of a "wild child", which was taken away because it was mute and bit people. Šarlota, who believes that child might have been her sister, presses Helena for its current whereabouts, but she denies any more answers and withdraws from Šarlota and Mira.
Šarlota confides in Mira that she had a miscarriage, and believes herself to be at fault for the fetus's death, as she doesn't want any children and that lack of love must have killed the unborn child. Mira scolds her for blaming herself and reassures Šarlota that her boyfriend leaving her afterwards is his fault, not hers, but Šarlota is so overwhelmed with guilt that she rejects any sympathy. She runs off after Mira slaps her out of impulse. They reconcile later, after Tomáš attempts to rape Mira; she manages to fight him off and runs into the woods. Meanwhile, Tomáš walks over to the family's barn to have sex with Anna, who prevents him from pulling out while climaxing.
At the local midsummar ceremony, Šarlota, Mira, Helena, and many locals sing a traditional song in unison. After, Helena's father threatens his two young sons with punches and they run off. Šarlota and a local shepherd, Rado, are the first to start dancing, after they consume drinks prepared by Mira with her own herb mixture. Šarlota and Rado get closer, and more locals join into the dance. Another local dances towards Šarlota and gropes her; she pushes him off, he falls to the ground, and the bystanding locals look at her in disbelief, victim-shaming her for dancing "like a whore". Helena screams at her, accusing her of causing problems. Šarlota says she only defended herself and walks off with Rado.
In the nearby woods, Šarlota experiences a drug trip, presumably caused by Mira's herbs, and witnesses witch-like persons perform dances and orgies. Eventually she has sex with Rado, naked on the forest floor. Helena runs into a dancing coven of naked women and is embraced and kissed by Mira, but gets overwhelmed and runs away, falling over the same cliff as Tamara.
The next day, the two sons have gone missing and search parties are being sent out. Šarlota realizes that Mira is Tamara, and they reconcile on the cliff. Mira tells Šarlota that Otyla took her in after the fall because their mother had already hung herself when Mira returned home, and that she eventually got forcibly removed from her by locals. Mira was also the one who wrote the "mayor's" letter. When Šarlota and Mira return to Mira's home, a badly wounded Helena is being carried by. Šarlota, a trained nurse, and Mira try to help the dying Helena, but Anna screams at them to get off and not touch her and yells for blessed salt. They attempt to help anyway, until Tomáš threatens them with a gun. During the confrontation, Helena dies, and Šarlota and Mira run back to Šarlota's cabin, followed by screams of accusations of being witches.
While search parties are combing the forest for the two children, Tomáš is convinced that Šarlota and Mira kidnapped them and begs Anna for them to go to Otyla's old cabin, which Šarlota had moved into. Just as Šarlota and Mira are about to leave, Tomáš and Anna arrive with additional locals. Anna is bound and Šarlota is tortured. They're demanded to reveal where they took the children, and eventually, Tomáš and more locals go outside to search while Anna interrogates Šarlota and Mira. In the distance, Anna sees her children, runs after them, and gets mistakenly shot by a local. Šarlota manages to run away. Tomáš returns, sees the wounded Anna, storms into the cabin, accuses Mira of being at fault, pours flammable liquid all over the cabin, sets it ablaze and leaves the bound Mira inside. Šarlota returns with Rado, rescues an unconscious Mira from the flames and attempts to resuscitate her.
In the last scene, at an undefined time, Mira and Šarlota are happily running through unknown woods, undress, jump into a lake and swim with no other company. A close-up shot of Šarlota shows her, seemingly, content.

## Cast

* Natalia Germani as Šarlota
* Eva Mores as Mira
* Juliana Oľhová as Helena
* Zuzana Konečná as Žofa
* Marek Geišberg as Tomáš
* Peter Ondrejička as Juro
* Noël Czuczor as Rado
* Jana Oľhová as Anna
* Iva Bittová as Otyla
* Matúš Ryšan as Adam

## Critical reception

The film generated positive reviews with an approval rating of 93% based on 15 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.