Cloud 9 (15)

The premise seems conventional enough: one summer in East Berlin a married woman deliberates over whether or not she should tell her husband about her affair with another man.

What’s unusual about this tender drama is that the lady in question, Inge (Ursula Werner), is a seamstress in her mid-60s who has been married to Werner (Horst Rehberg) for over three decades, while her new lover Karl (Horst Westphal) is a sprightly 76-year-old.

Avoiding superfluous sub-plots and back-stories and dispensing with a musical score, German writer-director Andreas Dresden sticks tight to his actors, who respond with powerfully naturalistic performances.

To its credit Cloud 9 doesn’t shy away from the physical intimacy experienced by its characters, nor the profound emotions which are unleashed by the extramarital affair.

Whatever one’s age, it seems, falling in love brings both joy and pain.

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