The movie Berlin Syndrome meaning, based on a novel of the same name by Melanie Joosten, is a psychological thriller directed by Cate Shortland that has as its protagonist a young woman played by Teresa Palmer who is a budding photographer that is visiting Berlin for the first time. After a chance encounter with a Berlin teacher, Max Riemelt, for whom she feels a sexual attraction, she decides to stay in the city for an extra few days. After a night of passion she ends up staying in his apartment overnight only to discover that he has locked her in. Over time he gradually turns her into his sex slave and emotional focus and the movie becomes an examination of the psychology of men who keep women captive.

The apartment she is locked in is located in an abandoned building and she soon realizes that she is not her captor’s only victim when she discovers a hidden room in the apartment. The movie revolves around her attempts to escape and are based on fooling her captor by offering him emotional support and pretending that she has sympathy for his psychological and emotional situation.

The movie focuses on and examines the terror of watching a woman being physically and psychologically dominated by a man and watching as her sense of self disappears. This is a different form of horror film especially as it does not rely on overt violence or bloody scenes to make its point. Locked in captivity, she must take drastic measures to assert any sort of autonomy against her captor and needs to balance any attempt at self-defense with being submissive in order to stay alive.

The story moves very gradually and instead of rushing from one traumatic event to the next, the audience is forced to see her adjust to life with and, shockingly, begin grow attached to her captor. The toxic blend of fear and dependency between the woman and her captor result in some perverse moments of emotional attachment between them, and even perverse and illogical displays of jealousy. The movie is effective in maintaining a constant anxiety in the audience as they wonder what he might do to her next.

Ultimately, however, Berlin Syndrome meaning revolves around the fact that people held in captivity begin to become attached to their captors and to be sympathetic to them. Perhaps the true horror of this film inheres in the fact that the audience, also, begins to identify with the woman’s captor rather than the victim.