Focus Expat Cinema: every Wednesday at 19:00 foreign language films with English subtitles.

Based on Julia Franck’s international bestselling novel Die Mittagsfrau — winner of the German Book Prize and translated into 37 languages — Barbara Albert’s film adaptation is a richly textured portrait of one woman’s struggle to maintain selfhood in an increasingly hostile landscape. Hélène’s complexity is brought to life by the mesmerizing Mala Emde in this stirring drama.

Hélène arrives in Weimar-era Berlin as a young woman with aspirations of becoming a doctor. As the city’s carefree ambiance darkens and tragedy befalls her fiancé (Thomas Prenn), Hélène’s grief gives way to a determination to keep her half-Jewish lineage a secret. When a handsome Luftwaffe officer (Max von der Groeben) professes his love and offers her a forged Aryan identity, she accepts his offer—yet the steps she takes for self-preservation leads her down a difficult path.