A film about the self - in a world that has gone completely off the rails
Something is wrong with her world - or perhaps with Pia? In his debut film, director Florian Pochlatko takes a loving and disturbing look at a young woman's return to everyday life after psychiatric treatment. The feature film celebrated its world premiere at the 75th Berlinale and tells of the friction between the inner and outer worlds, self-perception and the perception of others, normality and deviance with powerful imagery, humour and attitude. A film about the struggle with oneself - and about the right to feel different.
After her release from a psychiatric hospital, Pia moves back into her parents' home - but instead of stability, she finds a cosmos of helplessness, everyday rituals and quiet impositions. While her father pushes her to work, her therapist insists on ‘more participation’ and her mother loses herself in caring, Pia increasingly slips away from reality.
Visually inspired by graphic novels and narratively open to fractures, absurdity and inner states, the film accompanies its protagonist through a world in which mental health is less a private matter than political terrain. Without reproducing diagnoses, the film poses profound questions about our ideas of normality, adaptation and identity - and shows how necessary a new language for the abnormal has become.
Festivals / film awards
- 2025: 13. Austrian Film Week in der Ukraine
- 2025: 15. Beijing International Film Festival
- 2025: 43. Internationales Filmfestival von Uruguay, Competition
- 2025: Berlinale, Section Perspectives
- 2025: Diagonale, Opening movie
- 2025: Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Feature film competition
Distribution funding
