Starring Nina Hoss, Devid Striesow and Hinnerk Schonemann
Written and directed by Christian Petzold
Production year 2007
Running time 89 minutes
This
edgy, ice-cold thriller is the work of Christian Petzold, a member of
the Berlin School of filmmakers. Petzold won a Silver Bear for his 2012
film Barbara (also starring Nina Hoss) and is one of the most
interesting directors working in Germany today.
Yella tells
the story of a woman who leaves her husband and her small town in the
east to take a job in Hanover. However her husband Ben is a violent and
possessive man and she is seemingly unable to shake him off in her new
existence. Events take a stranger turn when her new job goes wrong and
through a chance encounter she meets a man who draws her into the
shadowy world of mergers and acquisitions.
Nina Hoss gives a mesmerising performance as Yella and the film generates an increasingly disturbing and paranoid atmosphere as reality is interrupted by weird sounds and echoes from her past. Just what is happening in Yella's world is only revealed at the last...
