German director Christian Petzold is in Cannes 78, premiering his new film, “Mirrors No.3” in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes.
With Paula Beer as his protagonist in the role of a woman surviving a car accident where her boyfriend dies and finding confort in a stranger’s motherly devotion, the film, because of the wind surrounding it, closes, unexpectedly, the element trilogy.
Petzold indeed started the trilogy in 2020 with Undine and continued it with “Afire“. Both the films had Paula Beer as their muse and it was her to notice the “wind” as essential in “Mirrors No.3“.
With a mix of tension, horror like tones and at the same time, feelings of acceptance and care, Mirrors n. 3 balance them all to tell a story of life and death, emotionally dying and coming back to life.
Plot
On a weekend trip to the countryside, Laura miraculously survives a car crash. Physically unhurt but deeply shaken, she is taken in by a local woman who witnessed the accident and now cares for Laura with motherly devotion. When her husband and adult son also give up their initial resistance to Laura's presence, the four of them slowly build up some family-like routine. But soon they can no longer ignore their past...