The Sparrow in the Chimney

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The Sparrow in the Chimney

2025

1h 57m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

67%

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21 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Karen, along with her husband Markus and their children, lives in her childhood home, left behind after the death of her mother. When her sister, Jule, visits with her family to celebrate Markus's birthday, the weekend opens old wounds and past traumas, unleashing repressed feelings that threaten to destroy their relationship and shatter Karen's grip on reality. The latest film from acclaimed writer and director Ramon Zücher (The Girl and The Spider), The Sparrow in the Chimney is a "darkly engrossing psychodrama of pent-up domestic tensions." (Variety) With "deep, bold dives into the nightmarish and the surreal" and a venomously comedic touch, this is the "rare film that feels like a catharsis for protagonist and director both." (The Film Stage)

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Critics Consensus

An intense yet occasionally overblown family drama, The Sparrow in the Chimney turns its tale of domestic unrest into an exhilarating spiral of shock and excess.

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Matt Zoller Seitz

RogerEbert.com

08/01/2025

2/4

It’s a disturbing, sometimes beautiful film that, by the end, is disquieting for all the wrong reasons.

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Kyle Smith

Wall Street Journal

07/31/2025

The movie is polished and bitter, like a fairy-tale poisoned apple.

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Zachary Lee

RogerEbert.com

11/01/2024

A film dipped in venom, often funny and deeply unsettling in how it portrays families who don’t feel the need to hide their vitriol behind pleasantries.

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Ria Dhull

Spectrum Culture

Aug 7

Zürcher is more focused on shock value than substance in The Sparrow in the Chimney; any knowledge we might gain about these characters through the film is immediately muddled, as we watch them commit incomprehensible act after incomprehensible act.

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Joseph Robinson

Fish Jelly Films (YouTube)

08/02/2025

4/5

A sobering character study on the perils of avoidance, laced with just enough awkward humor to keep you from crying.

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Jared Mobarak

Hey, Have You Seen ...?

08/01/2025

10/10

This is a haunted house story by way of human truth rather than supernatural horror. Karen mustn’t defeat anything. She must only be willing to let go.

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Michael S

Aug 19

A riveting psychological study of childhood trauma and its consequences.

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themanicexec

Sep 6

potent psychological manifestations filled to the brim with tension, bubbling over with dream symbolism, and laced with acid for the sharpest of tongues. its intricacies make for a fine delicacy, a real feast for the senses.

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Stephen C

@bob25009 08/01/2025

Success in 1 hour and 57 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Filmed on location in Germany and dubbed and subtitled in the United States of America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dubbed and subtitled in worldwide studios!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Ramon Zürcher

Director

Maren Eggert

Karen

Britta Hammelstein

Jule

Luise Heyer

Liv

Andreas Döhler

Markus

Lea Zoe Voss

Johanna

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The Sparrow in the Chimney: Trailer 1

1:43

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Synopsis

Karen, along with her husband Markus and their children, lives in her childhood home, left behind after the death of her mother. When her sister, Jule, visits with her family to celebrate Markus's birthday, the weekend opens old wounds and past traumas, unleashing repressed feelings that threaten to destroy their relationship and shatter Karen's grip on reality. The latest film from acclaimed writer and director Ramon Zücher (The Girl and The Spider), The Sparrow in the Chimney is a "darkly engrossing psychodrama of pent-up domestic tensions." (Variety) With "deep, bold dives into the nightmarish and the surreal" and a venomously comedic touch, this is the "rare film that feels like a catharsis for protagonist and director both." (The Film Stage)

Director: Ramon Zürcher
Producer: Silvan Zürcher
Screenwriter: Ramon Zürcher
Distributor: Film Movement
Production Co: Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, Zürcher Film
Genre: Drama
Original Language: German
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 1, 2025, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 7, 2025
Runtime: 1h 57m