3096 Days (German: 3096 Tage) is a 2013 German drama film directed by Sherry Hormann. The film is based on the true story of Natascha Kampusch, a 10-year-old girl and her eight-year ordeal being kidnapped by Wolfgang Přiklopil. Northern Irish actress Antonia Campbell-Hughes portrays Kampusch, while Thure Lindhardt plays Přiklopil.
The film was writer Bernd Eichinger's last film before his sudden death, and Martin Moszkowicz, head of TV and Film at Constantin Film, and Ruth Toma (Gloomy Sunday) took over. It was also cinematographer Michael Ballhaus's final film.
Plot[]
10-year-old Natascha Kampusch lives an unhappy life in Vienna, Austria. She doesn't have a good relationship with her separate parents and tends to overeat. In the morning of March 2, 1998, she walks to school alone after having an argument with her suburban mother. Natascha casually walks thinking maybe she should just disappear. On her way she is dragged into a white van and wakes up in a small well-hidden deep cellar. Her captor is 35-year-old technician Wolfgang Přiklopil. Despite being erratic, odd and tyrannical with Natascha, in public Wolfgang is socially awkward and very lonely, with his only contact being his mother, who occasionally comes to visit and bring meals to him. Witness descriptions of the van led police to interrogate Wolfgang, but could not find anything suspicious.
For the next four years Natascha is forbidden from leaving the cellar. Malnourishment, boredom, despair and Wolfgang's incessant psychological manipulation bring her down, giving up any intentions of escaping, though she yearning holds for her freedom. She loses a lot of weight and becomes skinny. Only when Natascha begins menstruating is she tolerated to leave the cellar and shower, and from then on, she is allowed to be out more often. When Wolfgang's mother is pleasantly surprised to find a girl's hair on his sweater, he shaves Natascha to avoid raising further suspicion. On Christmas Day of 2003, Natascha is renamed Bibi by Wolfgang, who also reveals his name for the first time. She becomes accustomed to imprisonment. Meanwhile, Natascha's mother is still guilt-ridden for having allowed Natascha to walk to school unsupervised.
Wolfgang begins building a new bedroom and forces Natascha to do heavy work, half-naked, despite her physical condition. Natascha's abuse also becomes sexual, with Wolfgang handcuffing them both with cable tie every time he rapes her. He sometimes takes her out in the garden until a curious neighbor saw them and got Wolfgang nervous. Driving out in public for the first time since her abduction, Wolfgang tests his keen sense of control over her that they go to a hardware store. Natascha hesitates to reach out to the storekeepers and is ultimately unable to after so much psychological manipulation (recalling Wolfgang's repeated words "Obey me, Obey me, Obey me"). Despite Natascha's obedience, her mistreatment intensifies.
Through a radio report Natascha learns that it has been 6 years since her kidnapping realizing he had lied to her and gathers courage to escape. Wolfgang then finally explains he did not pick Natascha at random, but rather became fascinated with her smile at a store and spent ten months building the cellar and planning her kidnapping to endure his lasting loneliness. Natascha tries to perform suicide by lighting a fire in her cellar, but she cannot follow through. Noticing the smell, Wolfgang grasps what she has attempted and beats her up. Fed up, she begins to write down every instance of mistreatment on toilet paper. As such, she looks forward to Wolfgang's plans to go skiing. Being constantly monitored, her only chance was to go to the bathroom, but the only woman there is foreign and cannot understand her. Wolfgang realizes this and beats her up at home again.
Soon after Natascha's 18th birthday and dancing together, Wolfgang plans to sell his van and procure false papers as a Czech citizen to "begin a new life" with Natascha. On August 23, 2006, he demands Natascha to vacuum his van. While Wolfgang attends a phone call, Natascha sees the half-open gate entrance and musters the strength to escape through the gate and ran far until she begs a 71-year-old neighbor named Inge T for help. Police reunite Natascha with her parents after 8 years of captivity and inform that Wolfgang, knowing that he might be arrested at any moment has committed suicide by laying down on a railway.
In later years, Natascha hosts a talk show and sympathized with her captor. She earns property of the very house that she was held imprisoned and also had the cellar filled in, adamant that it will never become a macabre museum to her lost adolescence. Some people believe it to be Stockholm syndrome. But for Natascha, it was 3096 days of her formative life.
Gallery[]
Natascha's cellar
Trailer[]
3096 DAYS - Official Trailer -HD-