Character Relationship Map: Possession

Characters

• Anna / Helen (played by Isabelle Adjani) — protagonist

  Anna is Mark's estranged wife, whose affair and violent, increasingly surreal actions drive the tragedy. She creates and protects a tentacled creature, kills several people, and ultimately kills herse...

• Mark (played by Sam Neill) — protagonist

  Mark is a spy returning to West Berlin who discovers Anna's affair and the collapse of their marriage. He tries to care for Bob, investigates Anna, kills Heinrich, helps Anna escape during a police co...

• Heinrich (played by Heinz Bennent) — supporting

  Heinrich is Anna's lover and Mark's rival. He defeats Mark during their first violent encounter, receives film footage from Anna, and later sees the creature and the dismembered bodies in Anna's apart...

• Heinrich's Mother (played by Johanna Hofer) — supporting

  Heinrich's Mother is encountered by Mark after Heinrich's death. Mark visits her, and she responds to the surrounding catastrophe by overdosing on pills and killing herself. Her brief appearance exten...

• Taxi Driver (played by Dragomir Stanojević) — minor

  The Taxi Driver is forced by Mark to ram a police car, creating a diversion that allows Anna to escape in Zimmermann's car. This brief but decisive action supports Mark's desperate plan, although the...

• Zimmermann (played by Shaun Lawton) — supporting

  Zimmermann is the Private Detective's work superior and romantic partner. After finding the creature and the detective's body in Anna's apartment, he becomes a threat to Anna and is killed by her. Ann...

• Bob (played by Michael Hogben) — supporting

  Bob is Mark and Anna's young son, whose care becomes a major source of conflict between his parents. He is repeatedly left neglected or frightened, develops sleep terrors, and is taken by Mark to Hele...

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Heinrich's Mother → Heinrich (mother)
• Mark → Taxi Driver (Power Coerced Accomplice)

  Mark forces a taxi driver to ram the police car as a distraction so Anna can escape.

• Anna / Helen → Heinrich (Romantic Lovers)

  Mark discovers that Anna is seeing Heinrich, and Heinrich receives a film reel from Anna concerning their relationship.

• Anna / Helen → Bob (Family Mother)

  Anna returns home with Bob, and the plot identifies Bob as the couple's young son.

• Mark → Bob (Family Father)

  Mark and Anna dispute custody of their young son Bob, and Mark later resolves to become Bob's primary caregiver.

• Mark → Anna / Helen (Romantic Husband)

  Mark returns home and discovers that his wife Anna is seeing another man and wants to separate.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Mark → Heinrich's Mother (Social Visitor)

  After killing Heinrich, Mark visits Heinrich's mother and witnesses her suicide by pill overdose.

• Anna / Helen → Zimmermann (Conflict Killer)

  Zimmermann finds the creature and the detective's body in Anna's apartment, and Anna kills him.

• Mark → Heinrich (Conflict Violent Rival)

  Mark visits and attacks Heinrich, who beats him down; later Mark kills Heinrich in a bar toilet.

Story Analysis

A collapsing marriage mutates into a supernatural struggle involving doubles, forbidden desire, violence, and the destruction of a family.

Plot Progression

1. A Marriage Comes Apart
2. The Double And The Lover
3. The Hidden Creature
4. Bodies And Betrayals
5. The Final Doppelganger