Rose

The Thirty Years' War is over; the seventeenth century, a Protestant village. A soldier arrives: Rose. She is in fact a woman living as a man, having taken the identity of a dead comrade in order to claim his inheritance. She tries to establish herself as the village's new master and enters an arranged marriage with Suzanna, a local farmer's daughter. Markus Schleinzer directs and co-wrote the screenplay. Sandra Hüller plays Rose. Gerald Kerkletz is the cinematographer. It is Schleinzer's third feature, after Michael and Angelo. The subject is property rather than identity. Rose living as a man is not built as a story of self realisation; inheritance, land and mastery are possible only this way, and the film shows it coldly. The postwar village sits inside the narrative: a fallen population, religious pressure, and everyone watching everyone. Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear for best leading performance at the Berlinale. The film was also nominated for the Golden Bear and the Teddy Award. It had its world premiere in competition at the 2026 Berlinale. The tone is distant and hard; Schleinzer refuses emotional proximity. Who it is for: viewers who follow severe European period film and Sandra Hüller. Who it is not for: the pace is very slow, the narrative is closed, and the film never lets you feel for its character.