OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2025 BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (In Competition)
From writer/director Frédéric Hambalek, the scathingly funny comedy of manners WHAT MARIELLE KNOWS centres on a tantalising premise: what would happen if everything a family had been keeping private from each other was suddenly out in the open?
Munich, present day. Well-off young parents Julia (Julie Jentsch, Sophie Scholl - The Final Days) and Tobias (Felix Kramer, Dogs of Berlin) and their tweenage daughter Marielle (Laeni Geiseler) appear to be the perfect bourgeois family. Yet behind the facade and designer kitchen, trouble is brewing: self-important Tobias battles with self-doubt, and tightly-wound Julia, longing for more excitement, is wrestling with her attraction to a colleague. The fragile balance of the family is shattered abruptly, though, when following an incident at school Marielle reveals an unwanted new ability to her parents: she’s somehow now able to see and hear everything that they do, in real time. For Marielle, it’s as if she is with them day and night, whether they’re at work or at home in the bedroom. At first understandably incredulous, Julia and Tobias quickly realise the lies they’ve been telling each other and themselves no longer hold water. And as their secrets and self-deceptions unravel - with increasingly awkward consequences – and the two become more and more acutely self-conscious, their relationship reaches breaking point…
Sharply executed and well-served by its committed cast, WHAT MARIELLE KNOWS is a fascinating exploration of hypocrisies and contradictions, and the truths families keep from each other to save face.