Foreign Language

Set in those heady teenage days when our collective hearts are a mess of brave and bewildering new ideas and the overwhelming thrum of emerging sexuality, 17-year-old Fanny (on-the-up French actor Lilith Grasmug) is lost at sea.

Or, more specifically, on an ad hoc foreign exchange with the family of her German pen-friend Lena (Josefa Heinsius). Only the welcome isn’t exactly friendly, at first, for a young woman who’s already feeling isolated thanks to relentless bullying at school. But things get complicated quickly when nascent longings emerge between the pair, who also throw themselves into activist awakenings. All the while, Lena’s on-the-edge divorcée mum (Tár star Nina Hoss) bristles as she opens another bottle in a host family that’s kind of all over the place. Claire Burger’s profoundly generous third feature was nominated for both the Golden Bear and the Teddy Best Feature Award at the Berlinale. With Chiara Mastroianni.