The most unique German film to debut at last year’s Berlin festival, Valeska Grisebach’s Longing paradoxically uses documentary-like realism to generate the otherworldly feeling that accompanies the telling of a parable or fairy-tale. Markus (Müller) is a metal worker and volunteer fireman living in a small town outside Berlin. Happily married to Ella (Welz), he is a seemingly contented man of few words. Called away from home for a weekend training session with his firefighting mates, he drinks too much and wakes up in the bed of waitress Rose (Dornbusch) unsure of what actually happened. In short order, Markus is in love with both his wife and Rose, and Grisebach’s finely wrought script and direction sketch out the inevitable outcome. With three wonderful performances delivered by non-professional actors and one of the most inventive codas in recent memory, Longing is a more than worthy addition to the growing list of surprising, heartfelt and artful new films from Germany.