What Marielle Knows (Was Marielle Weiss)

Julia and Tobias seem to be the perfect couple. Yet behind the facade and designer kitchen, trouble is brewing. Their fragile balance is shattered when their daughter Marielle suddenly develops telepathic abilities, giving her the power to see and hear everything her parents do, day and night. The couple soon realises the lies they’ve been telling each other will not get past Marielle anymore. Julia and Tobias' most uncomfortable secrets are exposed, leading to increasingly awkward, absurd situations and unleashing unexpected consequences…

Frédérick Hambalek’s very funny comedy is, behind its supernatural premise, intensely realistic. It is a scathing satire of the adult world and how the sum of compromises and sheer lies that build the narrative of who we are, is not only handled with systematic hypocrisy but is, more problematically still, imposed on our children as an alternate truth they are meant to just accept.

Marielle’s weird power upsets her, but above all, it humiliates her parents. Shame is an effective driver of comedy here, especially as Hambalek shows his wicked sense of humour by creating adult characters who are stuck in their ways and their social veneer. What if children were not fooled by their parents' failures, and by their failure as parents?

This screening is supported by the Goethe-Institut Irland.