Line #6 Film/BerlinSyndrome


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/berlin_syndrome.jpg]]
2	''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.
3	!Examples:
4	* AccidentalHero: A little boy looking for someone to help his hurt brother interrupts Andi right when he was almost certainly about to kill Clare.
5	* 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.
6	* BerserkButton: Being called “abnormal” by Clare (which is a very mild way of putting it) causes one of the few times when Andi loses his cool and hits her.
7	* CellPhonesAreUseless: Clare tries to call for help using hers immediately after learning Andi's locked her inside his apartment. He already took her SIM card though to prevent this.
8	* 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 the apartment.
9	* 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.
10	* DisposingOfABody: Andi makes Clare help him do this after he kills a man who she tried to get help from.
11	* 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.
12	* FalseReassurance: Andi spends awhile telling Clare that she can leave eventually, and her family knows where she is. He's lying.
13	* {{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.
14	* 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.
15	* FreudianExcuse: Andi turns out to have serious Mommy issues. His mother defected from East Berlin to West Germany, leaving her son behind.
16	* 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.
17	* GreenEyedMonster: Andi kills his father's dog due to Clare showing it attention.
18	* 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.
19	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Twice:
20	** Andi takes photographs of Claire tied up after her imprisonment, presumably because [[BondageIsBad 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.]]
21	** [[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.]]
22	* InternalReveal: Franka is alerted to what's going on once Clare slips a photo of herself bound and naked into Franka's notebook when Andi's grading it.
23	* 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.
24	* PermaStubble: Andi is always unshaven, but arguably doesn't have enough facial hair to qualify for a beard.
25	* QuestionableConsent: Clare once has sex with Andi after he starts holding her captive, but of course this context makes it dubious how consensual it was, although she seemed willing otherwise.
26	* 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.
27	* SlutShaming:
28	** 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.
29	** Later, when his coworker Jana is friendly to him at a party, he asks her if her husband approves of her throwing herself at men that way, leaving her confused and upset, and asking him to leave.
30	* 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 her nowhere.
31	* SummerRomance: 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.
32	* TeacherStudentRomance: Andi's student Franka notices he was watching her during gym class. When she spots him later on the street, Franks follows him home and comes on to Andi, obviously wanting this. [[SubvertedTrope He firmly rebuffs her though]].
33	* 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.
34	* TooDumbToLive: Franka finds out that Claire is being held captive and at a minimum abused. She doesn't go to the cops, or even tell anybody, but she ''does'' go to Andi's apartment to find Claire, and nearly gets killed.
35	* UncertainDoom: The ending makes it unclear if Andi is being left to die in the apartment, or if the picture in his classroom will cause the police to come investigating and find him.

Context Film / BerlinSyndrome