40-year Maria is living in a monotonous and deadlocked marriage with her husband. In addition, she has to take care of her ill despotic father. One day, she falls in love with her sensitive neighbour Dieter. But her attempt to leave her gloomy everyday life behind leads straight into tragedy.
Acting
Nina Petri's volcanic restraint—she's a bomb that forgot how to tick.
Direction
Tykwer already showing his gift for turning apartments into prisons.
Director
Tom Tykwer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tom Tykwer made this for roughly $150,000 after being rejected from film school—two years later he'd have Run Lola Run.
Often called the German answer to Safe or Jeanne Dielman, but with actual blood spilled—reflecting post-reunification anxieties about trapped East German women.
DE
