Julia (Julia Jentsch), Tobias (Felix Kramer) and their eleven-year-old daughter Marielle (Laeni Geiseler) seem like the perfect family. But when Marielle inexplicably gains the ability to see and hear everything her parents do, that illusion shatters. As their private indiscretions and personal insecurities become known to their young child, Julia and Tobias’ lives become fully upended. Faced with an impossible future, the couple must try to find a way to reverse Marielle’s newfound gift one way or another.

Equal parts hilarious, heartbreaking and harrowing, Frédéric Hambalek’s sophomore feature is an allegory for the surveillance state disguised as a sci-fi family drama. Suffused with palpable tension and tremendous care, the performances by Jentsch, Kramer and a revelatory Geiseler transform Hambalek’s exquisite screenplay into a monumental dramatic achievement. To say, “there is no film quite like this,” would be an enormous understatement; there is no film remotely close to this and it is doubtful there ever will be.—Cyrus Cohen

Frédéric Hambalek