3° kälter (2005)

The couple Jan and Marie are on vacation in Spain with their friends Frank and Steini. But when it is time to leave for home, Jan is nowhere to be found. Although Frank sees him standing in the surf during the search, he denies having seen anything when the others ask him. Marie tears up the photo of herself with Jan and decides to return to southern Germany. Five years later, Marie is married to Frank, the unfaithful Steini moves in with his girlfriend Jenny, and Jan’s mother takes huge quantities of sleeping pills. Jan’s brother Olli also helps Steini move, and meets the musician Babette there. Marie still cannot understand Jan’s disappearance. At first, everyone assumed he had died, but back then Jan got in touch from France without offering any explanation. Marie repeatedly has daydreams in which she sees Jan and their imaginary child. One night she gets out of bed to write Jan a letter and express her feelings for him. Unable to find the right words, she throws the letter into the wastebasket. The next morning, Frank finds the crumpled letter and sends it to Jan without Marie’s knowledge. Jan travels to Germany without warning, after spending one more night with a flight attendant. He enters his parents’ house, and the family cat runs out and is never found again. His mother is overjoyed, while Olli is not at all pleased. His unexpected appearance revives memories in his family and reopens old wounds. Frank tells Marie that Jan has arrived, but at first she does not want to see him. Her life now increasingly begins to fall apart. Jan’s father, a successful lawyer, cuts short a business trip to see his son. But their encounter is not without tension. Jan’s mere presence makes his friends question their current plans for their lives. Frank grows increasingly jealous and suffers sudden hearing loss. Jan and Marie first run into each other by chance at the railway crossing, where, according to popular belief, it is always 3° colder. Completely bewildered, she smiles at him. In a café, she asks him why he left. He replies that he did not leave; he simply never came back. Marie then walks away. She still loves him and does not know whether to be happy or angry. Jan visits Marie at the garden center where she works and urges her to go with him. After an initial outburst of anger, however, she kisses him passionately. Marie now grows increasingly distant from Frank, who is beside himself and withdraws. His hatred is directed above all at Jan. After going to a club together, Frank goes home and takes off his wedding ring. Marie, meanwhile, spends time alone with Jan. But after they kiss in his car at night, she gets out. The next morning, she enters her apartment and finds Frank sitting against the wall in the hallway. Without exchanging a word, the two move closer and closer until Marie lays her head in his lap. Meanwhile, Jan silently says goodbye to his parents and returns to Spain.