There is no country in Europe that is so difficult to reduce to digestible clichés as contemporary Germany: Finsterworld, a mosaic of bizarre stories and humorous dialogues is like a distorting mirror with fairy-tale sarcasm and pessimism alongside surprises and hope.

Weaving a tapestry of interconnecting tales, this fiction debut from documentarian Frauke Finsterwalder is an ambitious reckoning with notions of German identity. With an all-star cast that includes Sandra Hüller and Shia LaBeouf, Finsterworld is an Altmanesque interrogation of the national psyche.