The Cinematheque

VIFF 2020

“Petzold’s unsettling film is awash with wonderful ambiguities and strives to challenge both its audience and filmmaking conventions.”

Jack King, The Playlist

Panorama | Contemporary World Cinema | Special Presentations

A buttoned-down historian by trade, Undine (Paula Beer, Best Actress at this year’s Berlinale) can trace Berlin’s origins back to when it was a swamp teeming with creatures that either slithered or swam. However, the past that preoccupies her is a disintegrated romance with Johannes (Jacob Matschenz). As she’s slowly drawn to Christoph (Franz Rogowski), a diver culling treasure from a nondescript reservoir, Undine’s increasingly animalistic behaviour suggests that there’s something otherworldly lurking beneath her placid surface. We are all slaves to something and, in the case of Undine, it’s a matter of being bound by an ancient rite that compels her to punish Johannes’ transgression and take her place in the depths. Coming courtesy of German master Christian Petzold (Transit), this alluring modern fairy tale coaxes viewers into a cinematic realm defined in equal measure by exquisite attention to detail and tantalizing mystery. Deeply romantic and visually ravishing, Undine mines magic from the mundane and reminds us why love is so often the stuff of lore. – VIFF

North American Premiere
Silver Bear (Best Actress), Berlin 20
Language: In German with English subtitles
CAST: Paula Beer, Franz Rogowski, Maryam Zaree, Jacob Matschenz
EXEC: Anton Kaiser
PROD: Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber
SCR: Christian Petzold
CAM: Hans Fromm
ED: Bettina Böhler
PROD DES: Merlin Ortner
Production Company: Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, Les Films du Losange