Ina is a therapist, and this outstanding debut is her psychological assessment. Even if you are the best health professional in the world, can you escape your own traumata? Director Katharina Woll takes the premise of her heroine to a subtle comedic ground.

Ina is the mother of a rebellious teenage girl, and a partner to a man who has always put his own career first, and the daughter of a true narcissist about to turn 70. What could possibly go wrong in her life? Ina puts everyone’s needs before hers until one hot summer day changes everything.

The skilfully restrained camerawork concentrates on the characters, subtly mounting the pressure on Ina in long shots in which the camera moves slowly toward the main character. Katharina Woll creates scenes that combine physical humour and profound psychological shifts. As a whole, the film reflects the German urban society in which pleasing everybody can’t heal ever greater divides. Fantastic at the centre of this story is Anne Ratte Polle – famous for so many rebellious characters in the German cinema before – playing such a stuck character probably for the first time. Lovely.

Christoph Gröner