The latest fiction from acclaimed filmmaker Philipp Gröning (Into Great Silence) is a chilling account of a young family’s unraveling and the desperate attempts taken to protect a child’s innocence. With echoes of Bergman and Haneke, The Police Officer’s Wife explores, in intimiste strokes, the dark underside of love, desire, power and shame.

A simple film. A man, a woman, a child. A small town. The square apartment. Perfect Sundays. The story of a young family. The ceaseless labour of love out of which emerges what is later called the soul of a person. Creating the cradle of love that nurtures the child’s evolving soul. Affection and distance. The father’s career at the local police department. And the mother solely devoted to caring for the child. The violence between husband and wife. We watch as this woman sinks. And how she does everything she can to save this child’s soul, to keep it intact, to let it grow. To teach the child love. The Police Officer’s Wife is a film about the virtue of love, the virtue of curiosity, the virtue of joy. And about the dark within us.