Synopsis
Undine is a historian and tour guide at the Berlin City Museum specializing in urban development, while Christoph is an industrial diver. Linked by a love of the water, the two form an intense bond, which can only do so much to help Undine overcome the considerable baggage of her former affair.
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Cast
- Paula BeerUndine
- Franz RogowskiChristoph
- Maryam ZareeMonika
- Jacob MatschenzJohannes
- Anne Ratte-PolleAnna
- Rafael StachowiakJochen
- Julia Franz RichterNora
- Gloria Endres de OliveiraAntonia
- José BarrosMiguel
- Enno TrebsServer
Recommendations
- 83
The Playlist
Petzold’s unsettling film is awash with wonderful ambiguities and strives to challenge both its audience and filmmaking conventions. They’re incomparable and largely succeed through their independent nuances. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
Beer and Rogowski are so good, and have such amazing chemistry, that it’s hard to look away or not root for them to be together. - 80
Screen Daily
Petzold’s lean, crisply-shot tale is a deft shape-changer, switching mood and register, interlacing romance with suspense and sudden jabs of humour. - 80
Slashfilm
Its disquieting moments of magical realism paired with the all-consuming romance shared between Undine and Christoph — which feels as grand and tragic as the best cinematic love stories — add some warmth to Undine‘s chilly, cosmic exterior. - 75
The Film Stage
In taking a centuries-old piece of mythology as its source material, Undine ultimately forgoes the inventiveness and sensuality of its first half by slipping into relatively bland predictability. And for a filmmaker who thrives on disregarding narrative conventions, it feels a fatal error. “Relatively” is the key here. This is still Petzold after all, if not peak Petzold. - 75
Slant Magazine
The film questions the fixed nature of human behavior in a world whose borders are constantly shifting. - 75
The A.V. Club
For all the minor creepiness Undine pulls from its inspiration (including some striking underwater shots), it also inherits a certain simplicity of plotting and one-note characterization. Yet I still wouldn’t hesitate for a second to recommend the film, because it’s been made with the superb economy of pacing, shot selection, and editing that’s become a Petzold specialty, nay a trademark. - 67
IndieWire
Petzold remains a master of capturing frantic characters doomed by dark obsessions, and while Undine is certainly a minor work, it still shows evidence of a master’s hand.
