Berlin Syndrome

Scott Wallace
18th Apr 2017

It was certainly not intentional, but there is a delicious irony to the arrival of Cate Shortland's masterful thriller Berlin Syndrome to cinemas at the same time as Disney's live action Beauty & the Beast is still tearing up the box office (and being torn apart for its dated gender politics). In both films, a woman and her captor do emotional battle in close quarters, but in the slyly titled Berlin Syndrome, the results are far different.

Teresa Palmer stars as Aussie backpacker Clare, alone in Berlin, but content to share a few drinks with friendly strangers and wander the city taking photos. Over a punnet of homegrown strawberries, she meets the charming Andi (Max Riemelt), who shares her love of books and art. She is drawn to Andi, and he becomes an innocent holiday fling. That is, until she discovers the extent of his possessiveness and that he will take any measure to keep her with him.

Berlin Syndrome, at least in its first act, is paced more like a psychological drama than a thriller. The eroticism is refreshingly frank (you don't realise until you see it how rare it is to see a woman enjoy sex in a movie), and in Clare it has a smart and determined heroine. The film never goes to cartoonish extremes, even in its most violent moments, but remains tense and frightening, commenting eloquently on the combativeness of gender roles.

In Andi's tiny apartment, cunning and conniving are the order of the day, and through the brilliant performances of the two leads their non-verbal plays for power are always very clear to the audience. As Andi, Max Riemelt is both magnetic and repulsive, his character gradually revealing his true depraved misogyny at the same time as Clare finds her unbending courage. One could accuse Teresa Palmer of a mumbling, apathetic performance, but her portrayal of a young woman so far from home and so far from love is ultimately very real and very affecting.

This kind of slow-burn, very naturally-paced storytelling is what director Cate Shortland does best, and here she's triumphed once more. With gorgeous cinematography by Germain McMicking and Bryony Marks' music score adding emotional heft to Clare's yearning for the freedom she can see through reinforced windows, this is a thriller with all the nail-biting frights you could want, that is also smart and very memorable.

Tales of dangerous obsession are "as old as time," but Berlin Syndrome plays with tropes in a very knowing way. It's not a tale of Stockholm Syndrome, but a different beast entirely centred around sex and the vague promise of love as bargaining tools in the face of hatred. See Berlin Syndrome, and it won't be leaving your mind anytime soon, even if you want it to.

Berlin Syndrome opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday April 20th.