Parents find themselves under the scrutiny of their teenage daughter in Frédéric Hambalek’s sharp satire on the contemporary family that won him a special mention at the Berlin Film Festival 2025.
After her classmate slaps her in the face, Marielle suddenly knows everything her parents say and do. Sceptical at first, they are convinced she is telling the truth after she quotes an indecent dialogue between her mother and her colleague and describes in detail her father’s humiliating work meeting. The couple start talking in a foreign language in their bedroom and behaving as if they were constantly followed by CCTV cameras. Maintaining the image of mature adults in all areas of life proves to be a torturous activity, and at times completely ridiculous.
The slap on the face that causes the supernatural turn and creates the main conflict of the film is never explained. Screenwriter and director Frédéric Hambalek uses it to reflect on a fantastical situation: what if somebody had total access to our private life? And what if it were our child, someone who lived under our authority and with whom we had built an unequal power relationship? Hambalek’s fantasy flips the dynamic that exists in many families: parents start hiding their messages from their daughter, speaking in a foreign language in the hope she will not understand, and finally have to admit that they are powerless.
The film will be screened in German and French with Russian subtitles.
What Marielle Knows
Director: Frédéric Hambalek
Germany, 2025. 87 min
18+