Longing

Longing

2006. Germany. Directed by Valeska Grisebach. With Andreas Müller, Ella Koplin, Rose Kuchenbecker. In a small German town, an affair introduces friction into an otherwise blissfully uneventful marriage. Markus loves his wife Ella—they’ve been close since they were children—but nothing feels the same. Filmed with mostly non-actors, the love triangle plays out in long takes, in a quiet mode of realism. Yet, with moments of ambiguity poetically woven into the narrative, the film vacillates between too-real loneliness and the stuff of fairytales. In German; English subtitles. 88 min.