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Film review: Natascha Kampusch’s eight years in captivity – distilled into 111 minutes of cinematic brutality in 3096 Days

Austrian schoolgirl was abducted in vienna in 1998 and held for eight years in a cellar before she escaped in august 2006.

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The ordeal Natascha Kampusch suffered at the hands of her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, is almost unspeakable in its depravity.

The Austrian schoolgirl was abducted in Vienna in 1998 and held for eight years in a cellar before she escaped in August 2006. She was only 10 when she was taken. Now her story has been made into a film, whose title reflects the time she spent in captivity: 3096 Days.

Ruth Thoma and the late Bernd Eichinger’s production condenses Natascha’s hell down to a mere 111 minutes. They are 111 minutes of almost unmitigated cruelty, violence, sexual abuse and misery. Almost as soon as the film opens, you can’t wait for it to be over. Only towards the end does the Kampusch saga begin to offer up the odd ray of hope, as it becomes clear that Natascha’s kidnapper has become almost as dependent on her as she has on him. Bound to him with cable ties after being raped, she tellingly says to her captor: “You are tied to me, as much as I am tied to you.” It is this awareness which finally gives Natascha the courage to flee all of a sudden, one hot August afternoon almost seven years ago.

The film opens just months before her escape in the snow-covered mountains of Austria. Priklopil, the sexually warped, unemployed communications technician who takes her captive, has by this time become so confident about his relationship with her that he takes her on a skiing trip.

It is in a ski school lavatory that Natascha tries to escape, approaching a woman and telling her she has been kidnapped – but the woman turns out to be a Russian who doesn’t understand German. The escape attempt goes nowhere, but here Natascha’s determination to break away becomes all the more compelling. “It was clear from the start that only one person would survive and it was going to be me, not him,” she tells us in a voiceover.

The action then flashes back to March 1998 when Natascha, aged only ten, is snatched off the street by Priklopil and bundled screaming into the back of his Mercedes van.

Driven to her kidnapper’s petit bourgeois suburban home on the outskirts of Vienna, she is thrown into his underground prison – a windowless soundproof cell built beneath a car inspection pit in his garage. It is the beginning of eight years of cruelty, sexual abuse and misery. Priklopil begins by starving his victim – the actress Antonia Campbell-Hughes, who plays Natascha as an adolescent, is so thin that she resembles an Auschwitz survivor. When Natascha beings to menstruate, we see Priklopil beside himself with rage because her blood has dirtied the tiles in her cell. Soon afterwards the rapes begin.

It’s not a movie that makes you want to be sick – as metaphorically sickening as the subject is – but it is relentless in its dramatisation of the degradation that was inflicted on Natascha. The escape, when it comes, is a godsend; Priklopil then throws himself under an express train.

While there is little suspense, given how well the case is known, it is the outstanding performances from Campbell-Hughes and Amelia Pidgeon, who plays the younger Natascha, which really make the film a success.

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Thankfully it is not over dramatised, being very factual and not layering the scenes with chilling music, but you do feel that what plays out is Kampusch exorcising her demons. “It stirred up a lot of things all over again,” the real Natascha Kampusch said after seeing the film this week. “I was taken back to what I experienced. It was a strain, but it was also a relief.”

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• Cast & crew

User reviews

Not an easy film to watch

• May 4, 2016

A missed opportunity

• May 23, 2014

Underwhelming if you have read the book

• Mar 22, 2015

Subject matter taboo and excellent it's been brought to light

• strawberryfields747
• Dec 13, 2013

Impressive and depressing

• sneeuwwitjediarree
• May 29, 2017

Excellent acting and photography, emotionally very distant

• Jun 27, 2015

A repetitive and dull film

• estebangonzalez10
• Mar 6, 2014

Biased as heck

• HermauesMora
• Apr 9, 2021

The human spirit cannot be kept captive

• Sep 2, 2013
• mohammedminato
• May 29, 2020
• Nov 10, 2020

True to reality, great acting

• merel-van-dongen
• Aug 15, 2018
• Mar 4, 2019

Potentially the best drama - Ruined by amateur edition

• Jan 1, 2015

A little depict on what she had to live

• registers-944-48791
• Sep 19, 2020

"Dumber than a dog"

• Mar 18, 2024

A beautiful villian, obvious chemistry - no, no, no...

• zornicajohanova
• Dec 28, 2019

Stockholm syndrome

• Hayden-86055
• Aug 24, 2024

Harrowing and realistic

• May 11, 2014

How the hll could someone manage to make a movie as bad as this?

• kshihab-64848
• May 5, 2021

About a girl who feared the most to take chances but overcame and did it

• Reno-Rangan
• Sep 13, 2013
• Dec 24, 2013

A Very Real Film

• serdar-134-54891
• Sep 3, 2018

Technical review

• wolfpackkylan
• Jan 4, 2019

The Trials of the Human Mind

• onlythusfar
• Sep 28, 2013

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Directed by Sherry Hormann

The story of Natasha Kampusch

A young Austrian girl is kidnapped and held in captivity for eight years. Based on the real-life case of Natascha Kampusch.

Antonia Campbell-Hughes Thure Lindhardt Trine Dyrholm Amelia Pidgeon Dearbhla Molloy Roeland Wiesnekker Ellen Schwiers Erni Mangold Sebastian Weber Angelina Noa Michael Grimm Heike Koslowski Ulla Geiger Arthur Streiling Thomas Loibl

Director Director

Sherry Hormann

Producer Producer

Martin Moszkowicz

Writers Writers

Bernd Eichinger Peter Reichard

Casting Casting

Cinematography cinematography.

Michael Ballhaus

Production Design Production Design

Bernd Lepel

Composer Composer

Martin Todsharow

Constantin Film ARD Degeto NDR BR

Releases by Date

21 feb 2013, 27 feb 2013, 28 feb 2013, 25 jul 2013, 19 sep 2013, 28 oct 2013, releases by country.

• Theatrical MA15+
• Theatrical 18
• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical 16

111 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by peonsies ★★½ 4

got this title confused with 365 days please don’t be like me

Review by Cavy van Wyk ★ 3

Disgusting more than anything else. Awful screenplay. Should have showed more of her family's struggle and the outside world instead of focusing on making a shocking film. I wonder how much of the finer details inside that house which are revealed in this film are actually true. But most of all I'm curious how the kidnapper got so rich whilst practically doing nothing but abusing a young girl.

Awful screenplay. From the looks of the end-credit scene it looks like the screenplay was adapted from a dropped screenplay. Why am I not surprised then.

Natascha Kampusch didn't suffer for 8 years for this shit.

Review by atoll ★½

the title didn’t lie,, it really felt like 3096 days to watch this

Review by sofia ★★★★★ 4

i hate men ❤️

Review by Esteban Gonzalez ★½ 2

"Obey me! Obey me! Obey me!"

3096 Days is based on the autobiographical book written by Natascha Kampusch, a young Austrian girl who was kidnapped when she was 10 and kept in a cell for over 8 years. The shocking event took place during the late 90's and the title of the film refers to the amount of days Natascha was held captive, so there is no spoiler here. The film was directed by Sherry Hormann (Desert Flower) and the screenplay adapted by Ruth Toma. The premise may sound interesting since this is an extraordinary story, but the truth of the matter is that the film failed to engage me. The film focuses on Natascha and how she struggled to…

Review by shahinah 1

was it really necessary for her to be shirtless so much 🤢

Review by Morgan ★★★½

super disturbing, especially because it’s all true

Review by Levi ½ 2

Oh fuck off

A woman did not suffer for 8 years in real life just for this boring ass movie to be made about her.

A tragic real-life story turned into a film that does it a complete injustice. I had more fun reading the Wikipedia article about this case than I did actually watching the film.

Something like Room does it better in every way. Plus that film did the smart thing in not focusing on the capture/imprisonment completely. This film does the opposite and it gets old super quick, cuz we're shown no emotion from like the public or those who investigated this case, or even the fuckin girl's own family, so it's completely void of all the…

Review by aly11 ★★½ 1

Never trust a white man in a white van

Review by kate ★★

it felt really choppy and i wasn’t even sure if they were dubbed or if they are actually speaking english...

Review by Lilz ★

The screenplay is shockingly bad and there was a lack of any kind of emotional content for a film of this nature. Even the ending had no sort of climax it all just felt like the same speed all the way through. The only thing that hit me was how easy it was for him to snatch her up - I don’t think people realise how simple it is to be gone with now trace which is terrifying, even if the film didn’t nail showing it.

Review by michael Bailey ★

The only good piece of acting was from the young girl who acted in the first stage of the kidnapping, I thought she was really strong and moving. 

Why the fuck everyone speaking perfect English when it's set in a village off of  Vienna. That shit is patronising.

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audience Reviews

• Rating: 1 out of 5 stars Waste of time , dont bother would rather watch an indian movie
• Rating: 5 out of 5 stars A superbly crafted movie. Basically a two-hander, the actors portraying Natascha carried a huge, incredibly difficult role superbly. A horrific unbelievable yet true story. I found it stunning, gripping and very moving.
• Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars A great movie that details the real life case. With it being based on true events, it doesn't have twists and turns that you would often find in a non-fiction script however, it is interesting and compelling enough to keep you engaged.
• Rating: 5 out of 5 stars traumatizing but so so good
• Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Not so long ago, I watched a movie called "3096 days". The plot of this film (based on real events) is about a man stealing a 7 y.o girl named Natasha Kapshun. He built her a basement, where she spent more than 10 years (3096 days) , and in this film, an account of every day, month and year she lived is kept. In this film, a very acute topic is revealed - the abduction of children. We are shown that some people lead two completely different lives. The first is the life of an ordinary good neighbor, colleague, friend, and the second is the life of a crazy person or killer. This movie is quite difficult to watch. You fully understand the situation and the couple begins to experience the same emotions and feelings. The event that is described in this film actually happened and it becomes even more terrible.
• Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Sad but true :(((((((((((((
• Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars Though I believe the plot could have been more comprehensive, the bizarre story sticks with you and shows the intrinsic will to survive of Natascha.
• Rating: 4 out of 5 stars The kidnapping was just the beginning. | Surviving means living.
• Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ??????????????????????????????? ???????????????????? ?????????? ??????????????? ????????????????????????????????? ????????????
• Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars A movie truly based on tragedy of Natascha Kampusch. A bit boring if you are expecting entertaining or humorous kind of movie. But the acting was stunning, particularly Antonia Campbell-Hughes. Beware, there are some nude scene, inside the cinema of Malaysia.

3096 Days (2013)

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10-year-old Austrian girl Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped on her way to school on March 3, 1998. She spent 8 1/2 years under strict captivity by her kidnapper, and managed to survive one of the cruelest experiences a child should never have. Based on real-life events.