Gentle Monster

Lucy (Léa Seydoux), a successful pianist, moves to the countryside with her family to support her partner Philip (Laurence Rupp), who is struggling with burnout – thereby putting her own career on the back burner. One early morning, however, the police unexpectedly show up at their new home to conduct a search. Elsa (Jella Haase), a detective in the special investigations unit, strives to do her job with integrity while caring for her father, who has dementia.

Both women are forced to confront the unsettling questions that arise regarding the men close to them.

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Cannes Film Festival 2026 - Competition
TIFF - Toronto International Film Festival 2026 - Special Presentation

Marie Kreutzer is one of today’s most acclaimed Austrian film directors and screenwriters. After graduating from the Film Academy Vienna, she directed several award-winning short films. She gained wider international recognition with her 2019 film The Ground Beneath My Feet, which premiered in the competition program at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. In her films, she often brings to the forefront the often silenced perspectives of women. She builds her subversive stories around complex female characters, paying particular attention to the inner worlds of rebellious women, and boldly employs black humor. In her 2022 film Corsage, she explores issues that still affect women today through the character of Queen Elizabeth. The film debuted in the Un Certain Regard competition section at the Cannes Film Festival, where its lead actress, Vicky Krieps, shared the award for Best Actress. Kreutzer began working on her film Gentle Monster as early as 2020. Her thorough research was later supplemented by a personal experience: in 2023, Florian Teichtmeister, an actor in Corsage, was sentenced to two years’ suspended imprisonment for possessing child pornography.

The Ground Beneath My Feet (2019)
Corsage  (2022)

Director: Marie Kreutzer
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Laurence Rupp, Malo Blanchet, Anton Rubtsov, Nils Strunk, Catherine Deneuve
Cinematography: Judith Kaufmann
Screenwriter: Marie Kreutzer
Producers: Alexander Glehr, Johanna Scherz
Editor: Ulrike Kofler
Music: Camille
Hungarian Distributor: Cirko Film
Colour: colour
Run Time: 115 mins