Rose, which earned Sandra Huller the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin International Film Festival, is a bizarre and beautiful black-andwhite film depicting the tragedy of a person who chose to live as a crossdressing woman for the sake of freedom. In a 17th-century German Protestant village in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War, a soldier named Rose appears, claiming to be the heir to an abandoned farm. The villagers are wary and suspicious of this enigmatic outsider in every way, largely because he appears to be a woman masquerading as a man. In truth, Rose’s life is little more than a sandcastle built on deception. Yet who has the right to declare that life a lie? Is Rose’s crime an act of blasphemy against God, or an insult to men? Rose has no intention of confining herself to the fixed gender roles imposed by society. Yearning for, “There’s more freedom in trousers.” she crosses beyond the boundaries of life permitted to women. Rose is not the story of a woman who wanted to be a man, but the tale of a human being who could not live as a woman.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Markus Schleinzer is an actor, screenwriter, casting director, and film director. Before establishing himself as a director, he spent 17 years working as a casting director on films by Michael Haneke, Jessica Hausner, and Ulrich Seidl, deeply rooting himself in Austrian cinema. His debut feature, Michael (2011), premiered in the Berlinale′s Perspektive Deutsches Kino section before being invited to the main competition at Cannes, while his second feature, Angelo (2018), screened in the main competitions at San Sebastián and Toronto. His third feature, Rose, had its world premiere in the main competition at the 2026 Berlinale, where it earned lead actress Sandra Hüller the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
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