RETURN TO MONTAUK

A renowned German writer, Max Zorn, travels to New York for the launch and reading of his latest novel. His devoted but headstrong wife Clara has been there for a few months already, proof-reading the novel’s translation and press materials in preparation for the event. But little does she know that Max is thinking about another woman, a woman from his past - Rebecca, with whom he had a failed relationship in his youth.

Memories of this relationship continue to haunt Max, his biggest regret in life being that he let Rebecca go. With the help of a young and candid publicist assigned to his book launch, Lynn, Max manages to find Rebecca again, and she suggests they travel together to Montauk, a place on the coast which holds their most precious memories together. But as Max’s novel unfolds, revealing his innermost desires and contradictions, he will have to confront the fact that the past cannot be rewritten, and that perhaps the Rebecca he meets again now is no longer the Rebecca he has been thinking of every day for decades. She carries her own burden of memories, of another relationship cut short by the death of her partner; and in spite of their mutual attraction and regrets, the pair find that sometimes the clocks just cannot be turned back.

Director: Volker Schloendorff

Writer: Colm Toibin
Main cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Nina Hoss, Bronagh Gallagher

• Nominated for Best Film, Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin, 2017