{ "id": "ep1pnbpeck", "slug": "undine-2020-film", "title": "Undine (2020 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films of the 2020s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6.fantasy-films-of-the-2020s", "label": "Fantasy films of the 2020s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6.fantasy-films-of-the-2020s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Undine (2020) is a German-French drama by Christian Petzold, starring Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, reworking the Undine water-spirit myth in modern Berlin; it won the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress and the European Film Award.", "snippet": "Undine (2020) is a German-French drama by Christian Petzold, starring Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, reworking the Undine water-spirit myth in modern Berlin; it won the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress and the European Film Award.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-of-the-6.fantasy-films-of-the-2020s", "markdown": "# Undine (2020 film)\n\n**Undine** is a 2020 German-French drama film directed and written by Christian Petzold, in which a Berlin historian named Undine (Paula Beer) lives under the terms of the old water-spirit myth: if the man she loves betrays her, she must kill him and return to the water she once came from.[1](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf) The film premiered in the main competition of the 70th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) on 23 February 2020 and was released in German cinemas on 2 July 2020.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and screenplay | Christian Petzold[1](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf) |\n| Cast | Paula Beer (Undine), Franz Rogowski (Christoph), Maryam Zaree (Monika), Jacob Matschenz (Johannes)[3](https://www.berlinale.de/de/2020/programm/202011035.html) |\n| Production | Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, co-produced with Les Films du Losange; 90 minutes, German language[1](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf) |\n| Budget and shooting | 3.86 million euros; filmed 25 June to 15 August 2019 in Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia[4](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Undine__254345.html) |\n| Release | World premiere 23 February 2020, Berlinale competition; German theatrical release 2 July 2020 (Piffl Medien)[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a) |\n| Major awards | Silver Bear for Best Actress (Paula Beer) and FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin 2020; European Film Award for Best Actress[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11617052/awards/) • [2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a) |\n| Reception | 89% on Rotten Tomatoes (126 fresh of 142 reviews); 6.6 on IMDb[6](https://tv.apple.com/de/movie/undine/umc.cmc.5ziixyi35zsak0u30n8g21o4i) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and the myth\n\nUndine works in Berlin as a historian and museum guide lecturing on the city's urban development; she has a small apartment at [Alexanderplatz](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexanderplatz), a master's degree in history, and a freelance contract.[1](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf) Beneath this modern life lies the old myth of the water spirit who gains a human soul through a man's love: if her lover betrays her, she must kill him and return to the water.[1](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf)\n\nThe story opens with a breakup at a café: her lover Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) tells her he has met someone else, and Undine tells him, \"If you leave, I'll have to kill you.\"[7](https://time.com/6052587/undine-movie-review/) When she returns from her job across the street, he has vanished, and in the moment of betrayal she meets Christoph (Franz Rogowski), an industrial diver, when a nearby aquarium shatters over them both.[7](https://time.com/6052587/undine-movie-review/) A new, happy love follows, but when Christoph begins to feel that Undine is running away from something, she has to face her curse.[1](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf) The film is largely aquatic, repeatedly descending into the murky green world of a reservoir on the Wupper river, among bridgeheads, turbines, and water plants.[8](https://www.schueren-verlag.de/images/verlag/medien/675-leseprobe.pdf)\n\nUndine's lectures on Berlin's history carry the film's other theme: a city built on swamps, bisected by a wall for nearly a third of the last century, where the old and the new have blended.[7](https://time.com/6052587/undine-movie-review/) Critics read the film as mixing myth and present-day realism; the Deutsche Filmbewertung jury described how Petzold and cinematographer Hans Fromm subtly blend perception and imagination, myth and reality.[9](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/undine_1)\n\n## Origins and production\n\nPetzold knew the Undine myth, which [German Romanticism](https://www.edgepedia.org/german-romanticism) spread in countless variations in the 19th century, from childhood, but two texts drew him to the material: Peter von Matt's nonfiction book *Liebesverrat* and [Ingeborg Bachmann](https://www.edgepedia.org/ingeborg-bachmann)'s story \"Undine geht\". He has summarized Bachmann's curse as the idea that men are never faithful because, at bottom, they love only themselves. The first screenplay sketch was written in a [Marseille](https://www.edgepedia.org/marseille) hotel room during the shoot of his previous film *Transit* (2018), which also starred Beer and Rogowski.[10](https://www.filmportal.de/film/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a)\n\n**Production details.** The film was produced by Schramm Film Koerner & Weber with Margaret Ménégoz of Les Films du Losange as co-producer, in cooperation with ZDF, Arte, and Arte France Cinéma.[11](https://pifflmedien.de/filme/undine/) The budget was 3.86 million euros, with funding from BKM (500,000 euros), Film- und Medienstiftung NRW (180,000 euros), and other German and French funders.[4](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Undine__254345.html) Shooting ran from 25 June to 15 August 2019 in Berlin and [North Rhine-Westphalia](https://www.edgepedia.org/north-rhine-westphalia), with studio work at Filmstudio Babelsberg; Berlin locations included the Märkisches Museum, which serves as Undine's workplace, and the [Hauptbahnhof](https://www.edgepedia.org/hauptbahnhof).[4](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Undine__254345.html) • [12](https://www.shotinberlin.de/en/katalog/film/5694/) It was Petzold's first film made with digital technology.[10](https://www.filmportal.de/film/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a) The credited music is by J.S. Bach.[13](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/archive/undine/)\n\nPetzold has described *Undine* as the first part of a planned trilogy about mythological figures.[14](https://www.visionkino.de/fileadmin/user_upload/filmtipps/pdfs/FilmTipp_Undine.pdf)\n\n## Release\n\nThe film premiered on 23 February 2020 in the competition of the Berlin International Film Festival and reached German cinemas on 2 July 2020, distributed by Piffl Medien, with an FSK 12 rating.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a) • [11](https://pifflmedien.de/filme/undine/) It was released on DVD and Blu-ray and on video-on-demand platforms in Germany and later became available on streaming services in the United States, including MUBI and Sundance Now.[11](https://pifflmedien.de/filme/undine/) • [15](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/undine)\n\n## Awards\n\nAt the 2020 Berlinale, Paula Beer won the Silver Bear for Best Actress and the film won the FIPRESCI Prize of the international critics' jury in the competition section; it was also nominated for the Golden Bear for Best Film.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11617052/awards/) • [16](https://www.german-films.de/news/awards-for-german-films/article/awards-for-german-films-and-co-productions-at-berlinale-2020/) In December 2020 Beer won the European Film Award for Best Actress, one of two European Film Awards for German films that year.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a) • [17](https://www.medienboard.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Publikationen/MBB_Taetigkeitsbericht_2020.pdf) The film was nominated for the German Film Award in Gold for Outstanding Feature Film and for Best Sound.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11617052/awards/) Other honors include Best Director (Petzold) and Best Editing (Bettina Böhler) at the Seville European Film Festival, a Jury Special Prize for Artistic Contribution for Franz Rogowski at the Lisbon Film Festival, and a Special Jury Prize for Acting for Beer at the Montclair Film Festival.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11617052/awards/) The German rating board FBW awarded the film its Prädikat \"besonders wertvoll\" (especially valuable).[9](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/undine_1)\n\n## Reception\n\nOn Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 89 percent, with 126 of 142 reviews positive; IMDb users rate it 6.6.[6](https://tv.apple.com/de/movie/undine/umc.cmc.5ziixyi35zsak0u30n8g21o4i) Reviewers highlighted the central pairing: [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter) found Beer and Rogowski so convincing together that it was hard not to root for them, and Screen Daily described a lean, crisply shot tale that shifts between romance, suspense, and sudden humor.[18](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/undine/critic-reviews/) Stephanie Zacharek, writing in Time, placed the film in Petzold's line of work on longing, obsession, and deceit, alongside *Barbara* (2012) and *Phoenix* (2014), and noted that Beer and Rogowski had also starred together in his *Transit* (2018).[7](https://time.com/6052587/undine-movie-review/) J. Hoberman, writing in [The New York Review of Books](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-york-review-of-books), described a film that plunges decisively into the supernatural, with accidents, acts of vengeance, vanishings, and intimations of *Wuthering Heights*.[13](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/archive/undine/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Undine, German Films GFQ 1/2020 festival dossier](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf)\n2. [Undine, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a)\n3. [Undine, Berlinale 2020 programme archive](https://www.berlinale.de/de/2020/programm/202011035.html)\n4. [Undine, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Undine__254345.html)\n5. [Undine (2020) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11617052/awards/)\n6. [Undine, Apple TV (Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb figures)](https://tv.apple.com/de/movie/undine/umc.cmc.5ziixyi35zsak0u30n8g21o4i)\n7. [Stephanie Zacharek, \"In the Noirish Modern Fairytale Undine, a Mermaid and a Man Find Happiness—for Now\", Time](https://time.com/6052587/undine-movie-review/)\n8. [Filmjahr 2020-2021, Schüren Verlag](https://www.schueren-verlag.de/images/verlag/medien/675-leseprobe.pdf)\n9. [Undine, Deutsche Filmbewertung und Medienbewertung (FBW)](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/undine_1)\n10. [Undine, filmportal.de (German page, background on the myth and script)](https://www.filmportal.de/film/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a)\n11. [Undine, Piffl Medien](https://pifflmedien.de/filme/undine/)\n12. [Undine, Shot in Berlin](https://www.shotinberlin.de/en/katalog/film/5694/)\n13. [Undine, New Zealand International Film Festival 2021](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/archive/undine/)\n14. [Undine, VISION KINO Filmtipp](https://www.visionkino.de/fileadmin/user_upload/filmtipps/pdfs/FilmTipp_Undine.pdf)\n15. [Undine streaming, JustWatch (US)](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/undine)\n16. [Awards for German Films and Co-Productions at Berlinale 2020, German Films](https://www.german-films.de/news/awards-for-german-films/article/awards-for-german-films-and-co-productions-at-berlinale-2020/)\n17. [Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Tätigkeitsbericht 2020](https://www.medienboard.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Publikationen/MBB_Taetigkeitsbericht_2020.pdf)\n18. [Undine critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/undine/critic-reviews/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 2020s › Fantasy films of the 2020s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/undine-2020-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/undine-2020-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Undine (2020 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/undine-2020-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Undine (2020 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/undine-2020-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/undine-2020-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/undine-2020-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Undine (2020 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/undine-2020-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Undine is a German-French drama by Christian Petzold, starring Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, reworking the Undine water-spirit myth in modern Berlin; it won the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress and the European Film Award." }