When Molly is back from treatment at a mental hospital after the death of her lover, she moves into her new apartment and wants to live a new life. However, an annoying knocking sound gets on Molly’s nerves. She thinks it is a signal from someone who needs help, so she decides to find the source on the floor above hers. However, nobody believes her. Above all, does Molly believe herself?

It’s a popular subject in suspense films: a woman who tries to inform an urgent situation, but nobody, sometimes including herself, believes her. So broadly used these days, the word “gaslighting” came from British dramatist Patrick Hamilton’s Gas Light, where a woman in the same situation is a protagonist. Director Frida Kempff rephrases this old setting into a drama in a #MeToo-era. Somebody is in danger out there. Although she wants to help the person, the world doesn’t believe her. Most of all, she has to prove herself. 

Adapted from a novel, Knocks by Johan Theorin. Molly in the original novel lost her friend, while the film changes her friend into a girlfriend. Back in the day, this new setting might be criticized as a tragic cliché, but today it can be read as a part of a process of normalizing various experiences queer characters may experience in a lifetime. [Djuna]