History Film / BerlinSyndrome

* SummerOfRomance: Played for horror and deconstructed. Claire meets Andi in Berlin while she's on vacation. The two of them have an extremely brief whirlwind relationship...at which point Andi locks Claire in his apartment. As fall and winter come, it mirrors Andy's escalating violence towards Claire and the risk to her life.

* SoftGlass: Subverted. It takes Claire a while to smash through one layer of glass in the window...and they've been reinforced so it gets

** Andi takes photographs of Claire tied up after her imprisonment, presumably because [[KinkIsBad he's into them.]] [[spoiler:She uses the photograph to put it in Franka's notebook and alert her, which ultimately saves Claire's life.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Clare lures Andi back into the apartment near the end, having been released by his student Franka, and then locks ''him'' inside after he'd shut down the utilities in preparation to move.]]

* StockholmSyndrome: Clare seems to be suffering from a bit of this at times, as she becomes friendly with Andi and even has sex with him ''after'' he starts holding her captive. It's unsurprising, since she's probably desperate for any affection in the situation, plus she'd felt attraction toward him before, and they had consensual sex previously. It's likely the source of the film's name.

''Berlin Syndrome'' is a 2017 film which starts as the Australian tourist Clare visits Berlin, Germany. There she meets Andi, who's a charming, attractive German man, and they hit it off. While at first everything seems fine, after Clare has sex with him, she finds Andi's left the next day with the door locked from the outside. He apologizes and claims it was a mistake after coming back from work, saying he'll give her a key there so Clare won't be trapped inside again. The next day though, the key that Andi promised he'd leave is nowhere to be found. Clare realized in horror that Andi intends to lock her inside his apartment indefinitely. Her attempts to escape are futile-the window glass is reinforced, the door still locked. With increasing desperation, Clare struggles for a way to break free... The film stars Creator/TeresaPalmer and [[Series/Sense8 Max Riemelt]]. It's [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on a novel]] by Melanie Joosten with the same name, published in 2012.

* AffablyEvil: Andi is usually friendly and polite to Clare even when she's his captive. Only a couple of times does he really lose his cool, such as during her escape attempts or other resistance. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as he sees her as his girlfriend, willing or not.
* BerserkButton: Being called "abnormal" by Clare (which is a very mild way of putting it) causes one of the few times where Andi loses his cool and hits her.

* ChainedToABed: Andi ties Clare to a bed at first in the face of her resistance. He keeps her lying out on plastic in her own waste there when he's at work. Eventually, she gets him to set her free from this and stay loose there inside of the apartment.
* ConvenientPhotograph: Andi has a fetish for taking photographs of his "girlfriends". Clare finds a picture of one, tipping her off to how much danger she's in, and she uses this against him to slip a photograph of her tied up into his student Franka's papers.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Andi cares for his aging father and frequently visits him. His father is entirely oblivious to Andi's evil side from all that we can tell.
* FalseReassurance: Andi spends awhile telling Clare that she can leave eventually and her family knows where she is. He's lying.
* {{Fingore}}: Clare briefly gets out of the apartment with the keys after stabbing Andi's hand, pinning it onto the table using a screwdriver and running for help. Andi slams her hand in the door she's trying to open outside then drags her back.
* ForcedToWatch: Clare gets the attention of a man who comes to the door and asks him for help. He doesn't know English though, and Andi comes back the same time. She's forced to watch in horror while Andi kills him.

* GirlfriendInCanada: Or rather ex-girlfriend back in Canada. Nathalie did actually exist, but it's pretty apparent that she didn't really go home to Canada.

* HasAType: Andi is apparently attracted to foreign brunette women. Clare fits, along with the Canadian Nathalie from her photos, and we see him chat up a Frenchwoman like this too. He uses the same line with her as Clare, pretending to get an English word wrong so she can correct him.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Clare lures Andi back into the apartment near the end, having been released by his student Franka, and then locks ''him'' inside after he'd shut down the utilities in preparation to move.]]

* NotTheFirstVictim: Although we only see Andi imprison Claire, the smoothness with which he does it, the blonde hair in the drain (Claire is brunette), and Andi's references to [[GirlfriendInCanada Nathalie]] having "gone back to Canada" heavily imply that he had at least one other victim before her. She also finds [[ConvenientPhotograph photographs of a girl with the same tattoo that he gave her.]] He never confirms it but Claire seems convinced, with good reason.
* PermaStubble: Andi is always unshaven but arguably doesn't have enough facial hair to qualify for a beard.

* SlaveBrand: Andi does something similar to Clare, writing "Mine" on her shoulder blade in ink, which she views using the mirror after seeing a photo of another woman he did the same thing with. It's what tells her he won't be letting her go.

** When his student Franka hits on him after noticing he'd been watching her during gym class, Andi rejects her and cruelly says it was only because she'd been "flaunting" herself. She'd really done no such thing, just exercising in her gym clothing like everyone else.

* StockholmSyndrome: Clare seems to be suffering from a bit of this at times, as she becomes friendly with Andi and even has sex with him ''after'' he starts holding her captive. It's unsurprising, since she's probably desperate for any affection in the situation, plus she'd felt attraction toward him before and they had consensual sex previously. It's likely the source of the film's name.

* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: Andi turns out to hold women captive in his apartment (Clare and Nathalie, a Canadian tourist previously, perhaps more). Even his own father is entirely ignorant about Andi's true character, as he comes off as a normal and charming man, aside from a few moments where he seems "off". Even then though he just seems weird or rude, not dangerous.

* WouldHitAGirl: Andi forcibly ties Clare to the bed when she resists him, bangs her fingers in a door when she tries to escape, and slaps her for calling him "[[{{Understatement}} abnormal]]".