Alaska (2023)

After the death of her father, a former world-class canoeist from East Germany, Kerstin travels in the summer to the Mecklenburg Lake District with his red kayak. His last wish was to paddle the more than 2,000-kilometer-long Yukon River in Alaska. Kerstin had cared for the ailing man for half her life, so she decides to make the journey by circling the waters of her childhood. Each morning she sets off paddling; in the evening she looks for a campsite and spends the night in her small tent. The stoic loner, now in her forties, keeps away from larger groups and especially from men whenever possible, until one night at a campsite she meets Alima. Alima’s long marriage recently fell apart, but she has nevertheless been persuaded to go on a multi-day kayak trip with her ex-husband and friends. Before long, she is annoyed by her talkative paddling partner and the lack of cell-phone reception. She decides to continue the trip with the taciturn Kerstin, with whom she immediately feels a connection. The two very different women grow closer on their journey, and Kerstin confides in her. The two also spend a passionate night of love together. At the same time, the women have to fend off pursuit by Kerstin’s brother Thomas and his wife Nina. They both accuse Kerstin of taking their father’s savings after his death. Thomas had stayed completely out of caring for his sick father. Although Kerstin and Thomas grow closer again for a time, in the end, on a dark, rainy night, he furiously hammers holes into his sister’s old red East German kayak and drives home with his wife—the money they were looking for remains nowhere to be found. Kerstin disappears without a trace as she paddles back out onto the water in the damaged kayak.