The 36-year-old piano teacher Erika teaches at the conservatory in Vienna. She is a victim of her mother’s oppression and terror, and unable to show her feelings. When Walter Klemmer, one of her students, falls in love with her, she can only articulate her sexual needs in the form of cruel punishment …

Michael Haneke (born in Munich in 1942) is one of the most important Austrian film directors and screenwriters. He translated the brittle language of Elfriede Jelinek’s novel (1983) into equally sober, disturbing images that simultaneously elicit fascination but also disgust. The film was awarded three prizes in Cannes 2001.