Mirrors No. 3

Christian Petzold’s first film to screen at Cannes is a ghost story wrapped in a family drama, subtle and soft around the edges but with an enigmatic psychological ebb.

After music student Laura survives a deadly car crash, she’s taken in by Betty, a middle-aged woman who witnessed the accident. Betty’s home is calm and centring for the traumatised Laura, whose presence seems to have a similarly healing effect on Betty and, despite some initial resistance, on her husband and son. But the centre cannot hold; why is Betty so willing to let a stranger live in her home? Why does Laura so compliantly play along? And what will happen when the past comes back to haunt both women’s present?

Working again with muse Paula Beer (Afire, MIFF 2023), effortlessly mysterious here as the emotionally adrift Laura, MIFF regular Christian Petzold composes another intimate story of personal grief and human connection. Named after the Ravel piano suite that Laura plays in the final act, Mirrors No. 3 is as tantalisingly ambiguous as it is sweetly humorous, and – like all his works – elegant, intriguing, restrained and deeply human.

“No-one, absolutely no-one is doing it like Petzold … This is a work that is mellifluous, melodious and mysterious in equal measure.” – Little White Lies