An isolated facility at the outskirts of Vienna. A catholic convent, a school, a catholic boarding school for girls. The school has an elitist reputation, but the boarding school is on the decline. The fourth and fifth floors of the dormitory tower stand empty. The children are forbidden to enter these floors.
The matron of the boarding school is a deeply religious nun. She is confronted by anorexic girls from a world of excess, by girls that gape unabashedly at her when she prays. The sister fights for the faith of each individual child.
Martha holds the strongest beliefs. The twelve year-old venerates Jesus who sacrificed himself for the sins of the world. Martha’s relationship with the Nun is particularly sincere. Martha is the only child the Nun gives a cilice, a religious instrument that she also uses. One day, Martha approaches the Nun full of joy: “Sister, I have stigmata!“ Martha’s stomach is covered in wounds, scarred by the cilice, which she has worn far too enthusiastically. The Nun is stunned. She hides the wounded child on the empty fifth floor. In the boarding school she declares that Martha is in Spain with her parents.
Martha’s cilice has disappeared. Sparo has stolen it, a plump twelve year-old of lower class, frequently beaten at home and only just tolerated at the boarding school. She secretly wears the cilice under her skirt, like an adornment, the thorns facing outward. The Nun investigates and checks Sparo. Finally, Sparo manages to get rid of the cilice, leaving it in the church next to the statue of the Martyr St. Sebastian.
Martha’s condition noticeably deteriorates. The Nun cares for her, but doesn’t call a doctor. Nobody suspects that a child wastes away in isolation on the fifth floor. Only one light shines in the night. A single lamp on the fifth floor.
Sparo’s roommate is the model student Sabine. Sabine despises Sparo, and one evening asks her to go to the fifth floor. Sparo goes and discovers Martha, her only friend, who is almost too ill to talk. When she returns, she is caught by the Nun and must immediately pack her suitcases. In the same night, she commits suicide by jumping from the dormitory tower.
Sabine is now alone. She entreats her father to take her from the boarding school. However, the ‘ladies’ man’ doesn’t want her at home and she is helpless against his jokes. Martha’s parents arrive unexpectedly, they want to visit her daughter as a surprise. Hurriedly, the Nun transfers Martha to the sickbay. Martha is obviously marked by her illness and her loving father wants to take her to Spain with him. Her mother’s expression remains cold. Martha declares that she prefers to stay with the Nun. The parents leave.
Sabine is the only one who knows what is going on on the fifth floor. She turns for help to the highest authority of the institution, the school’s Head Mistress. The career-conscious nun listens in a very friendly manner, sees the potential damage to her school and rejects knowledge of anything.
That weekend, Sabine is not collected by her father. She finds herself locked in the empty building. She flees from the Nun who pursues her, her voice following her through the loudspeaker system. Sabine’s attempts to escape fail and Martha waits, her death coming near …
Script for a feature movie
Co-writer, director, producer: Ruth Mader
Carl Mayer Script Award 2005 (Main Prize)