Effi Briest

Synopsis

In 19th-century Prussia, a vibrant, seventeen-year-old aristocratic girl is married off to an ambitious, humorless baron more than twice her age, languishing in his spooky, secluded seaside estate in Kessin before an ephemeral flirtation with a charismatic military major, leading six years later to the discovery of her old love letters, a fatal dawn pistol duel, and total social excommunication. Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Theodor Fontane's exquisite, black-and-white literary summit starring Hanna Schygulla in a career-defining performance.