The movie “The Shapeshifter” contains philosophical, human questions, which cause alienation but also astonishment: How is it possible that the nice neighbor next door is supposed to be a cold-blooded murderer; that a person who seems perfectly normal in everyday life is fighting a lonely war against himself; that reality is only such a thin web that threatens to tear apart in some people and makes us look into abysses that we otherwise only know from nightmares?

​

The protagonist's inner conflict and the state of his soul are made visible through the house and the labyrinthine corridors and rooms of the apartment where most of the movie's action takes place. Unusual angles of the camera, harsh contrasts of the black and white images, the increasing narrowing of the image sizes as well as a spherically oblique and at the same time minimalist soundtrack condense the atmosphere of the film from minute to minute. In this way, the main character's own cramped world, from which he cannot find his way out, is made palpable. Reality and madness approach each other continuously until they can't be kept apart anymore.