Behind shutters that never open, a caretaker measures a strange child's icy teeth each morning in Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Earwig, a 2022 co-production between Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom.
What is Earwig about?
Set somewhere in mid-20th-century Europe, the film follows Albert, a man hired to look after Mia, a young girl confined to a shuttered apartment. Mia's teeth are made of ice, and part of Albert's daily routine involves tending to them. A telephone connects the household to an unseen figure known only as the Master, who checks in regularly on Mia's condition. The household's closed, ritualized quiet is disturbed when Albert receives new instructions: he must prepare Mia to leave the apartment for the first time. What follows reshapes the boundaries of the world the two of them have shared, pulling Albert into questions about who Mia is and what waits for her outside. Hadzihalilovic builds the story through atmosphere and repetition rather than exposition, letting small domestic details carry the film's unease.
About the cast
The ensemble includes Paul Hilton, Romola Garai, and Alex Lawther, alongside Martin Verset, Romane Hemelaers, Peter van den Begin, Anastasia Robin, and Marie Bos. Together they inhabit a story that leans on stillness and suggestion, with performances calibrated to the film's hushed, enclosed setting.
Context & significance
Earwig sits across drama, horror, and fantasy, a combination that lets it move at its own pace rather than following a conventional genre rhythm. As a co-production spanning Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom, it reflects a European arthouse sensibility, favoring mood and image over plot mechanics. The film runs 114 minutes, and its reception points to a work more discussed than universally embraced, the kind of title that tends to find a smaller but attentive audience willing to meet it on its own terms.
Watching Earwig on Ktime
Earwig streams on K-Time with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so viewers can watch in whichever form suits them. Access simply requires a free K-Time account login; the film's page itself, including this write-up, is open to read without signing in. K-Time presents the title within a fully Farsi interface built for Persian-speaking audiences in the diaspora.