< Back to main Festival page

A close-up of a young woman’s face, framed against a glowing orange sky with the sun flaring behind her. Her expression is serious and slightly defiant, her features cast in warm, saturated light. The mood is intense and atmospheric.

What Marielle Knows Was Marielle Weiss

  Frédéric Hambalek  |  Germany

Julia, Tobias, and their eleven-year-old daughter Marielle seem like the perfect family. The parents have high-powered corporate jobs and a stylish home complete with a designer kitchen. Yet beneath this bourgeois facade, trouble is brewing. When a friend at school slaps Marielle on the playground, she inexplicably develops telepathic powers, gaining the ability to see and hear everything her parents do—even when she’s not in the room. Under a state of constant surveillance, the parents’ patience is put to the test, and cracks in their marriage emerge. Through their daughter, they begin to engage in a series of manipulative games, leading to increasingly awkward and absurd situations.

Clever, incisive, and darkly funny, What Marielle Knows careens toward an unforgettable end as the fretting parents must do whatever they can to strip their daughter of her psychic abilities. From this absurd premise, director Frédéric Hambalek builds a hilarious and scathing satire of upper middle-class family life.

 French, German 

 84 minutes

Screenings & Events

There are currently no upcoming screenings of this film.

Media

Film Credits

  •   Philipp Worm, Tobias Walker
  •   Frédéric Hambalek
  •   Anne Fabini
  •   Alexander Griesser
  •   Julia Jentsch, Felix Kramer, Laeni Geiseler, Mehmet Atesçi, Moritz Treuenfels
  •   Walker + Worm Film

Sponsors

With support from

Logo: German Film Office 141x125Logo: Goete Institut - 86x100

You might also enjoy...

Twelve elementary school kids sit on a gym floor, all looking to the right, seen from above.

1:10

Sinan Taner | Switzerland

A schoolyard tussle between two friends escalates when the kids’ self-righteous and macho fathers get involved.

A group of four people lay intertwined in the grass, contentedly looking up at the sky.

Adult Children

Rich Newey | U.S.

A sheltered Chicago 17-year-old looks to her older half-siblings for guidance on impending adulthood—only to discover they’re more mixed up than she is.

A man in a white suit stands smiling in the street, standing in front of a black and white portrait of himself.

Jay Kelly

Noah Baumbach | U.K., U.S., Italy

Famous movie actor Jay Kelly (George Clooney) embarks on a journey of self-discovery, accompanied by his devoted manager (Adam Sandler).

Scroll to Top