Undine

A buttoned-down historian by trade, Undine (Paula Beer) can trace Berlin's origins back to when it was a swamp teeming with creatures that either slithered or swam. However, the past that preoccupies her is a disintegrated romance with Johannes (Jacob Matschenz). As she's slowly drawn to Christoph (Franz Rogowski), a diver culling treasure from a nondescript reservoir, Undine's increasingly animalistic behaviour suggests that there's something otherworldly lurking beneath her placid surface. We are all slaves to something and, in the case of Undine, it's a matter of being bound by an ancient rite that compels her to punish Johannes' transgression and take her place in the depths.