# Undine (2020 film)
**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)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and screenplay | Christian Petzold[1](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf) |
| Cast | Paula Beer (Undine), Franz Rogowski (Christoph), Maryam Zaree (Monika), Jacob Matschenz (Johannes)[3](https://www.berlinale.de/de/2020/programm/202011035.html) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and the myth
Undine 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)
The 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)
Undine'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)
## Origins and production
Petzold 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)
**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/)
Petzold 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)
## Release
The 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)
## Awards
At 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)
## Reception
On 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/)
## References
1. [Undine, German Films GFQ 1/2020 festival dossier](https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/PDFs/GFQ/GFQ1_2020_web.pdf)
2. [Undine, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a)
3. [Undine, Berlinale 2020 programme archive](https://www.berlinale.de/de/2020/programm/202011035.html)
4. [Undine, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Undine__254345.html)
5. [Undine (2020) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11617052/awards/)
6. [Undine, Apple TV (Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb figures)](https://tv.apple.com/de/movie/undine/umc.cmc.5ziixyi35zsak0u30n8g21o4i)
7. [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/)
8. [Filmjahr 2020-2021, Schüren Verlag](https://www.schueren-verlag.de/images/verlag/medien/675-leseprobe.pdf)
9. [Undine, Deutsche Filmbewertung und Medienbewertung (FBW)](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/undine_1)
10. [Undine, filmportal.de (German page, background on the myth and script)](https://www.filmportal.de/film/undine_89613a92e74546f893cf132ff781245a)
11. [Undine, Piffl Medien](https://pifflmedien.de/filme/undine/)
12. [Undine, Shot in Berlin](https://www.shotinberlin.de/en/katalog/film/5694/)
13. [Undine, New Zealand International Film Festival 2021](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/archive/undine/)
14. [Undine, VISION KINO Filmtipp](https://www.visionkino.de/fileadmin/user_upload/filmtipps/pdfs/FilmTipp_Undine.pdf)
15. [Undine streaming, JustWatch (US)](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/undine)
16. [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/)
17. [Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Tätigkeitsbericht 2020](https://www.medienboard.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Publikationen/MBB_Taetigkeitsbericht_2020.pdf)
18. [Undine critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/undine/critic-reviews/)
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*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*
*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*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license