Logo Goethe-Institut

United Kingdom

|

7:00 PM

Goethe-Kino - Special Preview: Christian Petzold: Miroirs No. 3

Film|Goethe-Kino (Cinema Screening)

  • Goethe-Institut London, London

  • £6, £3 Concessions and for Goethe-Institut language students & library members.
Tickets via Eventbrite

A dark and a light-haired woman stand in a field and hold each other's arms © Schramm Film

A dark and a light-haired woman stand in a field and hold each other's arms © Schramm Film

We are delighted to present a preview of Christian Petzold’s new film Miroirs No. 3 ahead of its UK theatrical release on 17 April. The film, which premiered in 2025 at the Quinzaine des cinéastes in Cannes, tells the story of a young pianist who appears to find refuge with an older woman after an accident. A film about loss and grief told with summery lightness and subtle humour, yet pervaded by mystery and unease.

Laura is a music student at the University of the Arts in Berlin. She appears to be unhappy as we first catch sight of her - looking down over water. When she and her boyfriend and another couple leave the city for a weekend in the countryside, she wants to return to Berlin almost as soon as they arrive. Her boyfriend drives her to the nearest train station. But on the way there, an accident occurs. Laura’s boyfriend dies, while she herself survives almost unharmed. Shaken by the event, she finds shelter with an older woman named Betty, who lives near the site of the accident. The two women become friends, and Laura stays; it seems to her that she has found a place where she can overcome both the tragedy and her deeper, longstanding unhappiness. But the idyll is deceptive.

young woman with long curly hair in a pink jumper seen in profile © Schramm Film, Foto: Hans Fromm

As in Afire (Roter Himmel), Petzold’s previous film, Miroirs No. 3, is set in the countryside during the summer. The atmosphere is light and airy. After the elements of water and fire, which played central roles in Petzold’s earlier films Undine and Afire respectively, this film is pervaded by the element of air. Yet the summery lightness is overshadowed by a latent sense of unease. People talk about cake batter, they are cheerful, and yet there is something mysterious, even a slight sense of horror in the air. Petzold revisits earlier motifs – the car accident, the lost daughter, the proximity to the realm of the dead – in order to tell a story about a family that has fallen apart.

Petzold again worked with a team and actors familiar to him – Paula Beer known from Transit, Undine, and Afire, as well as Barbara Auer, who appeared as early as 2000 in The State I Am In (Die innere Sicherheit) and later in Yella and Transit. Once more, Petzold, who uses music very sparingly, has inserted a beautiful musical moment. Laura and Betty’s son Max are sitting outside at a table, drinking beer and listening to a piece of music. It is not the melancholic third part of Ravel’s Miroirs, which gives the film its title, but the dynamic beat-driven Northern Soul classic The Night by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. A small moment of freedom – for the characters and for their performers.

Germany 2025. Colour, 86 mins. With English subtitles.
Directed by Christian Petzold. With Philip Froissant, Paula Beer, Barbara Auer, Victoire Laly, Matthias Brandt, Enno Trebs, Christian Koerner, Marcel Heuperman

Director Christian Petzold will be in London for Q&A’s at BFI Southbank (Wed 15 April, NFT 1) and Ciné Lumière (Thu 16 April, 18:00 hrs). Miroirs No. 3 will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 17 April.

With special thanks to New Wave Films.

 


 

Christian Petzold

Christian Petzold was born in Hilden, West Germany, on September 14, 1960. After completing his civil service, he moved to Berlin in 1981 to study German and theatre studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Following his graduation in 1989, he enrolled at the Deutsche Film‑ und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb). During his studies, he worked as an assistant director for Hartmut Bitomsky and Harun Farocki – who later collaborated on many of Petzold’s feature films – and as a film critic for several newspapers and magazines.
After several short films, including Süden and Das warme Geld, Petzold completed his graduation film Pilotinnen in 1994, produced by Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, with whom he has continued to collaborate ever since. In 2000, following his critically acclaimed TV films Cuba Libre and Die Beischlafdiebin, Petzold directed Die innere Sicherheit (The State I Am In), which earned him numerous awards, including the German Film Award in Gold for Best Film, establishing him as one of the most influential filmmakers in contemporary German cinema.
In 2001, Petzold worked with actress Nina Hoss for the first time on the acclaimed TV thriller Toter Mann (Something to Remind Me). The film received both an Adolf Grimme Award and the German Television Award. Hoss also starred in Petzold’s next feature, Wolfsburg, which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival and the Adolf Grimme Award in Gold the same year.
Petzold’s recurring creative collaborators include cinematographer Hans Fromm, editor Bettina Böhler, production designer K.D. Gruber, and composer Stefan Will. This team also worked together on Petzold’s film Gespenster (Ghosts). His next film, Yella, again starred Nina Hoss, whose memorable performance in the title role earned her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival and the German Film Award in 2008. Petzold and Hoss reunited in 2008 for Jerichow. Petzold then contributed the film Etwas Besseres als den Tod to the three‑part project Dreileben. Together with the other parts, directed by Christoph Hochhäusler and Dominik Graf, it premiered in the Forum section of the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival.
In 2012, Petzold’s film Barbara, again starring Nina Hoss, premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, where he received the Silver Bear for Best Director. At the 2012 German Film Awards, Barbara won the Silver Lola for Best Film. Petzold’s Phoenix, also starring Nina Hoss, premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Its screenplay marked his final collaboration with Harun Farocki, who passed away in July 2014. The film received numerous international awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the German Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Nina Kunzendorf.
Petzold subsequently directed two episodes of the TV series Polizeiruf 110 – Kreise (2015) and Wölfe (2016) –, both starring Matthias Brandt, who later appears in Transit, Afire, and Miroirs No. 3.
In May 2017, Petzold began production on his next feature film, a loose adaptation of Anna Seghers’ novel Transit. The film premiered in competition at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival. Petzold’s next feature, Undine, a contemporary reinterpretation of the Undine myth, premiered in competition at the 2020 Berlinale and, like Transit, starred Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski. Undine was nominated for both the German Film Award and the European Film Award for Best Feature Film in 2020.
At the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, his film Roter Himmel (Afire) premiered in competition, where Petzold received the Grand Jury Prize. His most recent film, Miroir No. 3, starring Paula Beer, premiered in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.
Christian Petzold is married to documentary filmmaker Aysun Bademsoy and lives with his family in Berlin Kreuzberg.

 

Related links