Nocebo (4½ Stars)

This is the eighth film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

A nocebo is the opposite of a placebo. To quote Wikipedia:

A placebo effect is the tendency of any medication or treatment, even an inert or ineffective one, to exhibit results simply because the recipient believes that it will work.

A nocebo effect is said to occur when negative expectations of the patient regarding a treatment cause the treatment to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would have.

Christine is a successful fashion designer who specialises in children's clothing. One day, while she's displaying a new collection, a sick dog approaches her. The dog shakes itself, and she's covered with ticks. As a result she develops a mysterious illness that makes her weak and have memory lapses. The doctors are unable to recognise the illness, but they suspect it's only psychological, so they give her a large cocktail of multi-coloured tablets to take every day.

Several months later a Philippine woman called Diana rings the doorbell and says that Christine has hired her as a housemaid. Christine can't remember speaking to her, but she accepts her into the house. In addition to fulfilling her normal duties, Diana has herbal remedies that cure Christine's illness. But all is not as it seems.

This is a very complex film. There are mysteries in the opening scenes that aren't explained until the end. There are frequent flashbacks to Diana's life in the Philippines. It's a film that needs to be watched more than once to be fully appreciated.