As Christian Petzold’s intimate psychodrama Mirrors No. 3, opens, we see Laura (Paula Beer) on a river overpass, and she looks so despondent that we wonder if she will jump to her death. But Laura, who is studying piano at university in Berlin, wanders off lethargically to meet her boyfriend for a couples day trip she would rather skip. Scattered and periodically catatonic, she is clearly suffering from clinical depression, but the boyfriend is too self absorbed to notice. When she cuts the trip short, he drives off the road; he is killed, but Laura suffers very minor injuries.
The accident happens near a house isolated in the countryside, and the middle-aged resident Batty (Barbara Auer) helps Laura to her house for medical treatment. Laura asks if she can stay instead of going to the hospital, and Betty kindly agrees, and makes her comfortable in an upstairs bedroom.
Betty goes out of her way to dote on Laura as she recuperates. The two quickly bond, and neither is in a hurry for Laura to move on. Betty seems to adopt Laura a little too eagerly than decency and generosity would require, which is an indication that something odd may be going on. When Betty has Laura cook dinner for Betty’s brusque husband Richard (Matthias Brandt) and her lumbering, uncommunicative son Max (Enno Trebs), increasing weirdness is evident.
Betty’s husband and son don’t live with her. Passersby occasionally stop and gawk at the house. Betty sometimes calls Laura by another name. Laura doesn’t show any interest in returning to her Berlin apartment and resuming her studies.
The audience is wondering what is going on with Betty’s family, but Laura isn’t – she’s found an emotional refuge. As the clues accumulate, we can guess the family’s back-story, but Laura doesn’t seek out the truth until it is blurted out, in a scene that becomes explosive.
Among cinema’s current auteurs, Petzold is unsurpassed in ending a movie and this one is perfect.
Along with his genius in observing human behavior and constructing psychodramas, Petzold is a master of movie sound. This is as far from a movie epic as you can get, but all his gifts are on display here.
This is a screenplay that works because of the exquisitely authentic and nuanced performances odf Paula Beer and Barbara Auer. All four actors have worked with Petzold before, and Beer is his current muse. In his previous film, Afire, three of them play starkly different roles: Trebs as a self-loathing intellectual brat, Brandt as his gregarious but very frank publisher and Beer is the playful sexpot who has been double-booked at his vacation rental.
The movie shares its European title, Miroires No. 3, with a Ravel piece for piano that is played in the film.
Mirrors No. 3 may not reach the heights of Petzold’s Phoenix or Afire, but it’s one of the best films of 2026 so far. Mirrors No. 3 is streaming on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.