DANCES WITH FILMS 2026 REVIEW! Writer/director Autumn Palen’s Breakfast at Berghain is almost impossible to describe. It’s a 14-minute midnight comedy about a small-town girl who goes on an Alice in Wonderland–style adventure to a magical German nightclub.
Rosie (Dominique Booth) is a sheltered girl whose world gets a lot bigger the morning her brother’s (Riley Nottingham) friend Walter (Johnny Briseño) shows up for a weekend stay. Walter rolls in from the big city with a suitcase full of stories that leave the entire family riveted. When Rosie hauls his bags upstairs, she catches a glimpse of his life and can’t let it go. At the dinner table, Walter holds court, spinning tales about a magical place called Berghain — a legendary Berlin nightclub where every drug known to man is on tap, but beyond any chemical high, he says, it’s the techno music that changes you. Rosie is transfixed. She begs him to take her, and Walter laughs it off, warning her that Berghain has a doorman who eats people like her alive — no class, no entry.
A mysterious figure with dramatic teal eye makeup appears in Autumn Palen’s surreal short film Breakfast at Berghain.
“…a small-town girl who goes on an Alice in Wonderland–style adventure to a magical German nightclub.”
Breakfast at Berghain is Palen’s homage to New German Cinema. It dives headfirst into the genre’s deadpan absurdism, where characters pursue irrational goals with total conviction, as if Kafka had written a comedy. Palen plays it completely straight, and that’s exactly what makes it work.
What’s harder to put into words is the pure silliness of the entire short film…a silliness that never stops being charming. Rosie is the normal girl navigating a world that operates on its own surreal rules. She’s a Cinderella chasing a dream that is intent on swallowing her whole.
Palen has made something absurd, infectious, and hard to shake — which, for a 14-minute short, is no small feat. Breakfast at Berghain is the kind of film that is perfect for your Midnight film festival block.
Breakfast at Berghain screened at the 2026 Dances with Films.
"…as if Kafka had written a comedy."
