My Wife Cries

The latest from leading Berlin School writer/director Angela Schanelec follows a middle-aged couple whose marriage unravels after a car accident brings a secret to light.

At work one day, crane operator Thomas receives a call from his wife, Carla. She’s been in a car accident and needs him to pick her up. Arriving at the hospital, he finds her on a park bench outside, physically unharmed but crying inconsolably. Eventually, Carla confesses something about the specific circumstances of the accident, leaving Thomas shattered. This revelation leads both Thomas and Carla to share intimate conversations with friends and loved ones about the fragility of romantic relationships and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone – even those with whom we share a life.

Two-time Silver Bear–winning filmmaker Angela Schanelec (I Was at Home, But, MIFF 2019) returns with another characteristically austere, defiantly minimalist work that’s fascinated with the psychology of modern relationships but resists easy interpretation – the kind of filmmaking that will appeal to fans of directors like Hong Sang-soo, Aki Kaurismäki and Éric Rohmer. Shot on 35mm by regular Radu Jude collaborator Marius Panduru (Diary of a Chambermaid, MIFF 2026), the Berlinale Competition–selected film is constructed of formally controlled tableaux-like sequences, each deeply attuned to the beauty of everyday life, whether it be a brass band playing in a park as it begins to rain or a group of friends performing a dance to a Leonard Cohen song.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival