Undine
By Kit Macdonald
Undine is a stylish, quietly strange romance that drifts between the world of myth and modern Berlin with disarming ease. Directed by Christian Petzold, whose other films include Barbara and Phoenix, it reworks the European water nymph legend through the story of a historian, played by Paula Beer, whose relationships seem bound by an ancient curse. When she meets an industrial diver (Franz Rogowski), the film slips into a hypnotic rhythm that's part love story and part ghost tale.
Petzold keeps things spare, concise and precise, and imbues little glances and gestures with as much storytelling weight as the dialogue. Berlin itself becomes a layered presence in the narrative, its changing architecture mirroring Undine’s fractured identity. An elegiac tale that lingers in the mind like a half-remembered dream.