Petzold’s Berlinale Grand Jury Prize winner, about a group of friends and strangers at a holiday house as a forest fire blazes many miles away, is a strong, terrifically scripted and effortless portrayal of human relationships under scrutiny and pretence.
Under Petzold’s assured hands, this modern interpretation of the Undine myth mostly works and benefits most from the sublime performances of Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski.
Too overly-plotted, Petzold’s attempt at revising Casablanca for the modern age—and in his own oblique style and sensibility—doesn’t come out as deeply compelling as his best works.
Petzold’s unique treatment of the doppelganger story as a Hitchcockian exercise in exorcising the Jewish-German trauma of WWII boasts an extraordinary denouement of unparalleled execution.
Petzold’s strong command of his craft is evident here in this measured and nuanced Stasi anti-thriller featuring a wary female doctor in ‘80s East Germany who desires to defect.
It draws heavy inspiration from the 1962 indie horror ‘Carnival of Souls‘, but the storytelling and execution are unmistakably Petzold’s as he tackles failed dreams and false hopes in this slow-burning psychological biz thriller.
A teenage girl and her parents who are far-left terrorists on the run are the focus of this promising and largely riveting feature debut that combines coming-of-age tropes with crime and politics, while at the same time turning some of these conventions upside-down.
The eternal love triangle is given the Hitchcockian treatment in Petzold’s spare but tightly-executed melodrama about outsiders in society.
Eternality Tan 