Cracks in the Shell

Fine is a student at a drama school who has no confidence in herself. At home she cares for her severely disabled sister, and nobody expects anything of her. A well-known director casts her in the lead of a play. But the part is the opposite of who Fine is, and the director pushes her a little harder at every rehearsal. Christian Schwochow's German film is about how the line between a stage identity and a real personality gets rubbed out. Stine Fischer Christensen takes the lead. The telling makes the director neither a hero nor a monster; his method works, and it is the actress who pays for it. The film manages to be unsettling without ever leaving the rehearsal room.