Movie · 2015 · Crime, Thriller, Romance · 2h 18m · NR · German
Curator score: 8.0/10 (177.4K ratings)
One City. One Night. One Take.
Overview
A young Spanish woman who has newly moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.0/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.94/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 77
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
Sebastian Schipper
Production
MonkeyBoy, RadicalMedia, Deutschfilm, WDR, ARTE
Cast
Laia Costa, Frederick Lau, Franz Rogowski, Max Mauff, Burak Yiğit, André Hennicke, Lena Klenke, Philipp Kubitza, Martin Goeres, Andreas Schmitka, Adolfo Assor, Eike Frederik Schulz, Hans-Ulrich Laux, Jan Breustedt, David Micas, Timo Honsa, Bernd Weikert, Ansgar Ballendat, Daniel Fripan, Ambar de la Horra
Where to watch
Kino Film Collection
Curator Review
Verdict
A propulsive, real-time Berlin thriller that turns a flirtation into a nerve-shredding spiral. Its single-take bravado is more than a gimmick: it locks you into the characters’ momentum, making every bad decision feel immediate and unavoidable.
Best for
viewers who like immersive, high-tension crime dramas
fans of real-time or single-take filmmaking
people drawn to nightlife stories that curdle into danger
audiences who enjoy messy, impulsive characters and moral panic
Skip if
you dislike improvisational, handheld realism
you want a tightly plotted, twist-heavy crime story
you prefer emotionally distant or highly polished visual style
you’re impatient with characters making obviously terrible choices
Overview
Victoria is a rare thriller that feels both formally audacious and emotionally reckless. The movie rides almost entirely on forward motion: a young woman, a new city, a late-night connection, and the terrible sense that every next step is happening too fast to stop. The long take creates a pressure-cooker effect, trapping you inside the night as it grows more volatile and less romantic.
Worth noting
What makes it work is how casual it feels at first. The early stretch has the loose, intoxicated energy of a real Berlin night out, and that naturalism makes the turn into crime all the more alarming. Laia Costa gives the film its pulse, balancing vulnerability, curiosity, and stubborn momentum in a way that keeps the character believable even when the plot becomes increasingly extreme.
Bottom line
This is as much a technical feat as a genre film, but it never feels like empty showmanship. The camera’s endurance becomes part of the story’s anxiety: there is no escape, no reset, no cut away from consequences. If you like your thrillers sweaty, immediate, and a little bit reckless, it’s an easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Anna Johansson (5★) · 3838 likes
the film was shot in one single long take by sturla brandth grøvlen from about 4:30 AM to 7:00 AM on 27 april 2014 in the kreuzberg and mitte neighborhoods. the script consisted of twelve pages, with most of the dialogue being improvised. DUDE
guilherme (3.5★) · 2396 likes
imagine if she had just gone home
georgie (4★) · 1718 likes
in times of trouble just think 'wwvd' (what would victoria do) and then don't do that