Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
The Longing
TITLE DETAILS

The Longing

2002-08-08 · 94 min · ★ 5.8

Drama

It is set in a dreary village in the Schwabian-Frankish Forest where the seemingly reserved Lena lives with her tyrant of a husband, Johannes, in a loveless marriage. Johannes is the village's spiritual leader and Lena is his faithful, ever-ready-to-serve wife. Lena's daily life is characterized by grinding monotony, a life narrowly circumscribed by nursing, organ playing and the duties of the marriage bed. The mysterious murder of a village girl suddenly knocks this humdrum existence off its tracks. In the wake of these events Lena discovers the affection and tenderness for which she has always longed in Paul, the village mechanic. This encounter is the start of an emancipation that leads her not to reveal Paul's secret regarding the girl's murder, for fear of losing her newly won piece of happiness. In turn it means she has to remain silent, as she has always done in her many years of marriage. So it is that this love ultimately turns Lena herself into a fallen angel.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Iain Dilthey
Production companies
Artus Postproduktion
Countries
Germany
Status
Released

Top Cast

Susanne-Marie WrageLena
Klaus GrünbergKlaus GrünbergJohannes
Robert LohrRobert LohrPaul
Heidemarie RohwederMartha
Manfred KranichGriesbacher
Peter LerchbaumerPeter LerchbaumerHuber
Eva LöbauEva LöbauVerkäuferin
Sigrid SkoetzFrau im Laden
Wolfgang PackhäuserWolfgang PackhäuserChorleiter
Brit GdanietzTrauernde

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Availability not listed for this country.

Recommendations

The Young One
★ 7.0
The Young One1960Drama

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything
★ 5.8
Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything2023Drama

Set in a warm summer in 1990 in former East Germany, it follows a young woman who begins a relationship with a charismatic farmer who is twice her age.

Goodbye June
★ 6.5
Goodbye June2025Drama

Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.

Bastard Out of Carolina
★ 7.1
Bastard Out of Carolina1996Drama

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

Come Sunday
★ 5.8
Come Sunday2018Drama

Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.

In the Aisles
★ 6.9
In the Aisles2018Drama

Christian, a reclusive young man from Leipzig, gets a job working the night shift at a big-box store. He's trained to stocks goods and operate a forklift by Bruno, a wistful former truck driver, who introduces Christian to a colorful group of overnight workers, including Marion, with whom Christian develops a troubled infatuation.

Lorelei
★ 6.0
Lorelei2020Drama

A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.

A Question of Faith
★ 7.5
A Question of Faith2017Drama

When Tragedy Strikes three Families, their Destiny forces them on a coverging path and mercy as the challenges of their fate could also resurrect their beliefs

Gracie
★ 6.2
Gracie2007Drama

A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.

Eleanor the Great
★ 6.8
Eleanor the Great2025Drama

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

The Truth About Emanuel
★ 6.0
The Truth About Emanuel2013Drama

A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.

The German Lesson
★ 6.5
The German Lesson2019Drama

In a small North German village a drama played out during and shortly after the Second World War about duty versus individual conscience and morality.

September
★ 6.2
September1987Drama

After a suicide attempt, Lane has moved into her country house to recuperate. Her best friend, Stephanie, has come to join her for the summer. Lane's mother, Diane, has recently arrived with her husband Lloyd, Lane's stepfather. Lane is close to two neighbors: Peter, and Howard. Howard is in love with Lane, Lane is in love with Peter, and Peter is in love with Stephanie.

The Padre
★ 5.9
The Padre2018Drama

American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.

What Maisie Knew
★ 7.1
What Maisie Knew2013Drama

In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.

The Kindness of Strangers
★ 6.4
The Kindness of Strangers2019Drama

Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.

Girl in the Box
★ 6.7
Girl in the Box2016Drama

The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.

Here
★ 6.5
Here2024Drama

An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.

Salomé
★ 6.1
Salomé2013Drama

After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.

Tigertail
★ 6.7
Tigertail2020Drama

A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Similar titles

Poster unavailable
★ 8.0
I'll Wait on You Hand and Foot2000Drama

Ramona, not quite 18, leaves Vienna for a German provincial town to be reunited with Toni, the love of her life and her baby′s father. The girl puts all her faith in Toni′s promise, made on a whim, to marry her. Straight after her arrival, she begins to realize that he′s no longer interested in her. All the same, Ramona tries to make her dream of a family come true.

Prisoners
★ 4.0
Prisoners2006Drama

In a German town, teacher Irene leads an inconspicuous, boring, lonely life. One day, a man rings at her door and slips in. It's an armed convict from the prison next door, escaped with a leg wound. He now makes her a prisoner in her own home. Almost without a word, as if she secretly enjoys the excitement or just mesmerized, she obeys Vassily, every single command, even sexual services, submissively or after a symbolic struggle. Somehow that seems to change, but can force initiate love?

A Missed Connection
Not rated
A Missed Connection2020Drama

Two former college friends randomly reconnect at a coffee shop during a long winter night. As the night progresses, past events and emotions slowly begin to surface.

3 clicks
Not rated
3 clicks2026Drama

Filled with longing for her friends abroad, a young woman stumbles upon a mysterious abandoned camera in a park and accidentally captures moments she can never reclaim.

In the Realm of the Senses
★ 6.6
In the Realm of the Senses1976Drama

A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.

Lonely Hearts
★ 6.1
Lonely Hearts2006Drama

In the late 1940s, a murderous couple known as the 'The Lonely Hearts Killers' kills close to a dozen people. Two detectives try to nab the duo who find their targets via the personals in the paper.

sex, lies, and videotape
★ 7.0
sex, lies, and videotape1989Drama

Ann, a frustrated wife, enters into counseling due to a troubled marriage. Unbeknownst to her, her husband John has begun an affair with her sister. When John’s best friend Graham arrives, his penchant for interviewing women about their sex lives forever changes John and Ann’s rocky marriage.

Shall We Kiss?
★ 6.2
Shall We Kiss?2007Drama

When Gabriel and Emilie meet by chance, he offers her a ride, and they spend the evening talking, laughing and getting along famously. At the end of the night, Emilie declines Gabriel's offer of "a kiss without consequences". Emilie admonishes him that the kiss could have unexpected consequences, and tells him a story, unfolding in flashbacks, about the impossibility of indulging your desires without affecting someone else's life.

Malena
★ 7.6
Malena2000Drama

12-year-old Renato experiences three significant events on the same day: the beginning of the Second World War, getting a bike, and witnessing the arrival of the gorgeous Malèna. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed dead, and, through his soul, we see his love for her.

Fragment of sometime, somewhere
Not rated
Fragment of sometime, somewhere2026Drama

A young man and woman say goodbye to one another in an abstract representation of an apartment entrance. He is leaving. They struggle to separate. They exchange a piece of paper, which hints at their past together, as a farewell gift.

Bitter Moon
★ 7.1
Bitter Moon1992Drama

A passenger on a cruise ship develops an irresistible infatuation with an eccentric paraplegic's wife.

Obsessive Love
★ 5.1
Obsessive Love1984Drama

A woman tries to create a relationship with the soap star who is the object of her obsession.

Bear
Not rated
Bear2022Drama

A young inexperienced man rekindles his emotional and intimate relationship with his only love–his charming, and talking, childhood teddy bear.

Lady Chatterley
★ 6.2
Lady Chatterley2006Drama

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

Spirits Talk
Not rated
Spirits Talk2026Drama

A grieving woman’s reality and memories begin to blur as her adoptive mother, Mother Nikki, reaches out to her from the spirit realm. She must speak to her mother one last time—or risk losing the ability to love herself and others.

Law of Desire
★ 7.1
Law of Desire1987Drama

Pablo, a successful film director, disappointed in his relationship with his young lover, Juan, concentrates in a new project, a monologue starring his transgender sister, Tina. Antonio, an uptight young man, falls possessively in love with the director and in his passion would stop at nothing to obtain the object of his desire.

Sex-Power
★ 4.9
Sex-Power1970Drama

A young Frenchman arrives in Northern California looking to forget a lost love and ends up encountering various forms of feminine power.

The Other Side of the Bed
★ 6.0
The Other Side of the Bed2002Drama

When Paula leaves her mate Pedro, he misses her and looks for comfort with his best friends, Javier and Sonia. Paula is having an affair with Javier. Pedro tries to find who is the secret lover of Paula, and hires a private eye. Meanwhile, while comforting Pedro, Sonia has a one night stand with him and Javier thinks she is cheating on him with her lesbian friend Luzia.

Indochine
★ 7.0
Indochine1992Drama

In colonial Vietnam, dashing French naval captain Jean-Baptiste, wealthy plantation owner Éliane Devries, and her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camillevare form the three points of a cross-cultural romantic triangle. As the struggle against European imperialism sweeps Indochina, Jean-Baptiste and Camille have to choose sides and Éliane faces the emotionally difficult challenge of raising the child of her daughter and ex-lover.

Longing
Not rated
Longing2016Drama

A semi-autobiographical short about a young man musing about the nostalgic joy of being a careless child.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.