Synopsis
A passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive relationship when an Australian photojournalist wakes one morning in a Berlin apartment and is unable to leave.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Teresa PalmerClare Havel
- Max RiemeltAndi Werner
- Matthias HabichErich Werner
- Emma BadingFranka Hummels
- Elmira BahramiJana
- Christoph FrankenPeter
- Lucie AronElodie Zadikan
- Nassim AvatAron Hurwitz
- Thuso LekwapeBilly Dharma
- Lara Marie MüllerSilke
Recommendations
- 80
Screen Daily
Australian director Cate Shortland (Somersault, Lore) takes a horror movie premise and imbues it with the knotty emotional complexity of a dysfunctional relationship psychodrama. - 80
Variety
Between more trickily opaque stretches of character development, Shortland nails a handful of straight-up, nerve-shredding tension sequences, teasing a version of the film that might have tilted into full-bore horror. - 80
The Verge
Palmer’s performance is honest and brave (particularly given that she’s often just performing scenes alone), and Shortland deftly switches between locked-door thriller mode and more nuanced character work. - 75
The Film Stage
While some of the story’s turns can feel overtly manipulative, Shortland finds a bracing humanity in depicting the perverse situation of Stockholm syndrome. - 75
The Playlist
This isn’t the kind of genre piece that everyone will warm to. Some might find the subject matter too bleak; others might wish it were pulpier. But on the whole, Berlin Syndrome is incredibly effective, while offering a perspective that these kinds of films usually lack. It gets to know the innocent, while rendering the evil banal. - 75
IndieWire
Bolstered by a strong performance from Teresa Palmer (who only gets better with each role, and seems happy to mix things up when it comes time to pick them), Berlin Syndrome doesn’t break much new ground in the genre, but it’s certainly a worthy entry into it. - 75
Consequence
Berlin Syndrome isn’t a sensational film; the emotions on display are warped and scarred, but rooted in identifiable desires. In some ways, this makes their impact that much more ingrained. - 75
Slant Magazine
Until its hasty climax, Cate Shortland's film is rewardingly patient and psychologically cogent.
