My Wife Cries

A withdrawn construction worker named Thomas (Vladimir Vulevic) leaves work one day to discover his wife, Carla (Agathe Bonitzer), on a park bench, tearful and distraught following an emergency. What she proceeds to reveal tests the limits of their seemingly comfortable marriage, her sudden honesty upending their perceptions about themselves and one another. This simple yet gripping set-up beckons into being a formally audacious portrait of contemporary anxieties around love, gender, and trauma, set against the beautifully forlorn countryside surrounding Berlin. Once again expertly balancing enigmatic detachment and emotional transparency, the singular German director Angela Schanelec (Music, NYFF62) has crafted one of her finest and most unexpected relationship dramas, working against melodrama while spellbinding the viewer with its drifting inquiry into human behavior.