Lose My Self

Lena Ferben (Maria Schrader) has been married to her husband Tore (Johannes Krisch) for many years when she suddenly loses her self. The doctors call her condition retrograde amnesia; undiagnosed meningitis is the reason for why she no longer has access to that which medicine calls biographical memory. Yet how peculiarly the brain functions: language is still available, but the words are not linked to experiences. Tore attempts to show Lena the way to her self, show who she was to him and who he to her. A recap of previously experienced reality. How will it have been, being Lena Ferben? Lena tries it out as an actress might try out a role, whilst within her, concurrently, something new is developing – a separate individual personality that recoils from doing that which Lena's entire environment is encouraging and coercing her to do: to become herself. (Berlinale)