This film was released on Friday 9th June 2017 and is no longer screening. 

Australian tourist Clare (Teresa Palmer) arrives in Berlin to photograph East German GDR architecture. Whilst there, she meets Andi (Max Riemelt), a handsome, if moody, schoolteacher and they hit it off immediately. He shows her his neighbourhood, the allotment where he grows strawberries, and eventually his apartment where their flirtations become physical.

The next morning she awakes to find Andi has left for school, and has locked the apartment. At first she assumes it’s a mistake but, on discovering that he has also removed the SIM card from her phone, she realises she has become his prisoner.

Berlin Syndrome, director Cate Shortland’s third feature following Somersault (2004) and Lore (2012), marks the Australian’s first foray into pure genre territory, a confident, suspenseful addition to the growing list of cautionary tales of the perils of backpacking abroad alone.

(Notes by David O’Mahony.)

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