Undine works as a historian lecturing on Berlin's urban transformation, but when the man she loves leaves her for another, an ancient myth threatens to come alive. Petzold's film retells the water-spirit fairy tale in contemporary Berlin, weaving together the city's architectural past and the logic of the uncanny with characteristic restraint. Paula Beer — who won the Silver Bear at Berlin — brings an otherworldly stillness to the title role, while Franz Rogowski is magnetic as the industrial diver whose love awakens something irreversible.
