Breakwater

A woman’s tranquil life is disrupted by a traumatic memory in Schermer’s haunting latest (after Love, If That’s What It Is). Emilia, a 40-something sociologist, travels to Amsterdam with her doctor husband, Bruch, from their remote country house to attend a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. After the show, an oafish, overzealous acquaintance surprises Emilia, covering her eyes and mouth with his hands, and triggering a memory of her rape 12 years earlier. After the couple returns home, Emilia tries to maintain a semblance of normalcy by gardening, taking their boys to school, and working on reports. But she’s riddled with anxiety as she wrestles with her trauma and whether to tell her husband about the attack, which took place shortly after they’d started dating. Then, on the drive home after visiting her brother (and having taken a Valium), she narrowly escapes a collision. Bruch, meanwhile, jokingly accuses her of having an affair, though it turns out he’s hiding something. In a stunning ending, Emilia’s secrets and Bruch’s lies come to the surface with staggering consequences for the marriage. This complex psychological study illuminates what it means to be human. (Apr.)