Film screening
The Universal Theory

Fokus, Films from Germany

Mon, 17.02.2025
7:00 PM - 21:00 GMT RBC Film Theatre

Fokus, Films from Germany, curated by Camilla Baier, presents a metaphysical mystery where a young physicist attending a quantum mechanics conference becomes entangled in a web of paranoia, conspiracy, and murder. The film will be screened in its original language with English subtitles at the RBC Film Theatre.

2023 | Director: Timm Kröger | Germany/Austria/Switzerland | 118 min | German with English subtitles.

1962. Johannes Leinert, together with his doctoral advisor, travels to a physics congress in the Swiss Alps, where an Iranian scientist is set to reveal a “groundbreaking theory of quantum mechanics”. But when the physicists arrive at the five-star hotel, the Iranian guest is nowhere to be found. In the absence of a new theory to be discussed, the physics community patiently turns to skiing. Johannes remains at the hotel, but soon finds himself developing a special fascination with Karin, a young jazz pianist. Something about her seems strange, elusive. She seems to know things about him – things that he thought only he knew about. When one of the German physicists is found dead one morning, two inspectors arrive on the scene, investigating a homicide case. As increasingly bizarre cloud formations appear in the sky, the pianist disappears without a trace – and Johannes finds himself dragged into a sinister story of false memories, real nightmares, impossible love and a dark, roaring mystery hidden beneath the mountain.