The Story of My Wife

Set in the 1920s, a middle-aged Dutch seaman bets his cynical business partner that he will marry the first woman who enters the café they are sitting in. Captain Jakob Störr (played by the dashing Gijs Naber) is looking for happiness, so in walks the mysterious and stylish Lizzy (French superstar Léa Seydoux's another amazing performance), who is amused by the idea of a sudden marriage. Their lush affair told in seven chapters, exploring different stages of a cat and mouse romantic relationship.

The freighter captain is not comfortable when out in society with the lively Lizzy. Back on the ship he is stark and silent, but he has a lot of time to think. He convinces himself that his wife, who lives alone in an apartment in Paris, is having an affair with her friend, the young writer Dedin (Louis Garrel). Störr and Lizzy soon leave frivolous Paris and move to the colder Hamburg, where they slowly drift apart. The captain’s own fears and doubts seem to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then comes a surprising turn of events, flipping their lives again.

Ildikó Enyedi’s grandiose ninth feature -her first in English- is an adaptation of the Hungarian poet Milán Füst’s novel of the same title – and loosely based on the legend of the cursed Flying Dutchman.