Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald (2007)

The film is told from the perspective of Marie, a married woman with two children, who one day accidentally discovers that her husband Thomas, a musician, has a second family nearby with Anna, one of her former friends. The plot follows Marie as she tries to come to terms with this discovery, recalls the positive aspects of their relationship with the help of old cassette tapes and videos, is humiliated, and feels the ground increasingly slipping out from under her feet. She follows her husband to a concert and can no longer find her bearings in reality. Flashbacks to their relationship, depicted through brief appearances on a theater stage, offer clues as to how the situation came about. In some surreal scenes, the film shows Marie becoming increasingly alienated from the people around her, even from objects. The radical ending is heard but unmistakable. It reveals Marie’s solution, which invokes the classic theme of the Medea story. Motifs from Arthur Schnitzler are also recognizable, particularly from *Dream Story*.