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First-time feature film director Iain Dilthey's The Longing relates a tale of duty, desire, and high crime in a rural German village, and is also the final film of the young filmmaker's Sehnsuchtstrilogie (The Desire Trilogy) -- the other two being the short films Summer at Horlachen (1999) and I'll Wait on You Hand and Foot (2000). Stuck in a very unremarkable and monotonous marriage to town minister Johannes (Klaus Grunberg), housewife Lena's (Susanne-Marie Wrage) everyday life is the very essence of lifeless structure, with regular visits to her invalid sister-in-law, Martha (Heidemarie Rohweder), organ-playing duties at her husband's church, and unemotional, scheduled sexual liaisons with Johannes. When the family car breaks down, Lena soon makes the acquaintance of auto mechanic Paul (Robert Lohr) and the two nearly instantly find a mutual attraction to one another. At the same time, however, a young girl from the village is murdered and Lena learns that Paul is somehow complicit -- thus forcing the newly liberated housewife to make a decision between passion or righteousness. The Longing represented director Dilthey's final student project in his film studies and earned him the Golden Leopard prize at the 2002 Locarno International Film Festival.