Talking About the Weather. 2022. Germany. Directed by Annika Pinske. In German; English subtitles. 89 min.
Diligently working toward a PhD in philosophy, Clara (Anne Schäfer) has arrived at a crossroads. About to turn 40 and divorced, she has entered into an affair with an arrogant student; has increasing difficulty navigating the cold, cutthroat world of academia in Berlin; is trying to connect with her teenage daughter, who lives with her ex-husband; and feels estranged from her hausfrau mother, who still lives in the rural East German area where she was raised. In her absorbing and insightful feature debut, set largely over a few crucial days in Clara’s life, Annika Pinske has created an acerbic drama about the interrelation of deep-seated class anxieties and personal neuroses, establishing herself as a figure to watch in the ever-expanding landscape of contemporary German cinema.