"Berlin Syndrome"

Berlin Syndrome is a psychological thriller directed by Cate Shortland and starring Teresa Palmer as Clare, a young Australian traveling in Berlin. She meets local teacher Andi and she ends up going back to his apartment. The next day, things take a turn for the worse as Clare finds herself locked in the apartment. After Andi returns, he claims that he had forgotten to give her the key, and she quickly accepted this explanation. She ends up going back to Andy's apartment again that night, and the next day, she finds herself stuck in the apartment again after Andi leaves. Finally realizing that something is amiss, she tries the key, only to find that it doesn't fit. Her phone's SIM card is gone. Desperate, she smashes a window, only to find that all the windows are heavily reinforced. Andi returns and makes it clear that he intends to keep her there, and Clare soon finds out just how depraved and dangerous he is beneath his charming and unassuming façade. 

The film is excellent at building tension between Clare and Andi through their uneasy arrangement, and almost the entire film centers itself on the hopelessness of Clare's situation, her early attempts at escape, and her gradual acceptance of her imprisonment in the apartment. Andi is not without some sympathetic qualities, befitting the title of the film which alludes to Stockholm syndrome, a condition where a captive develops affection for their captor, with Clare showing some signs of affection for Andi even as it becomes clear that she is not his first victim. The film also does well to shatter the illusions of affection brought on by Stockholm syndrome by also showing Andi's gradual descent into further instability and how Stockholm syndrome can be a very bad thing for a captive to experience. The film never romanticizes Andy's actions and Clare's predicament is rightfully treated as horrific. Even then, she does have some lingering affection for him throughout the entirety of her captivity and even as she makes efforts to escape from him.

The dark and brooding atmosphere of the film and especially the apartment lends itself well to highlighting just how hopelessly trapped Clare is, and Teresa Palmer's performance as an increasingly desperate yet helpless Clare as she grows to adapt to her situation while simultaneously understanding how her only hope of surviving is to keep Andi happy, as well as Shortland's direction, help elevate what could have been a fairly predictable premise into a genuinely tense exploration of captivity, domestic abuse, and the strange dynamic between captive and captor.

Berlin Syndrome is an excellent thriller with a captivating lead performance from Teresa Palmer and never-ending tension throughout. 10/10!