Alle Nadeln an der Tanne (2020)

Shortly before Christmas, Maria Koslowski is called to the hospital, where her brother Moritz is being treated. She had had no contact with him for years, ever since he went abroad as a photographer and globetrotter. Now he has been brought back to Germany after a car accident and needs care. He suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, which caused a major personality disorder, including suicidal thoughts. Maria, who still feels strongly attached to her brother, does not hesitate for long and takes Moritz home with her. It is a challenge not only to her own life, but also to her family’s. It creates further problems for her marriage, which is already in trouble, and the children are not exactly thrilled about getting something like an older brother. Felix thinks family is stupid anyway, and seventeen-year-old Emily tries in vain to convince her parents that she wants to save the world and therefore needs to go to India. But Moritz’s presence has one advantage for all of them: in his friendly helplessness, he has time and listens, whoever needs to get something off their chest. Maria sells natural cosmetics, which means she can arrange her work hours flexibly and take her brother along with her. But on the very first day, there is already an incident: Moritz suddenly drives off in the car, simply leaving his sister behind. Just then, the police call to say that her husband is being held at the station because he was caught stealing a Christmas tree. When Maria finds Moritz again, he is in an aggressive phase and also has to answer to the police. Maria therefore makes sure her brother takes his pills regularly. But she notices that Moritz no longer seems to take part in life at all, just sitting there apathetically. Since she does not like that either, she deliberately stops giving him the medication and begins to enjoy spending time with her brother, doing silly things as they used to when they were children. They roam the streets, spray-paint walls, and play a trick on their father in the retirement home, with whom they do not have a good relationship. The next day, Moritz, who keeps trying to fill in the gaps in his memory and suffers from visions and flashbacks, has a breakdown. The doctor makes it clear to Maria that without his medication her brother will keep having episodes like this, and they could become more frequent until his brain shuts down completely. Although Moritz is supposed to remain in the hospital for further observation, he discharges himself and tries to make his way on foot, alone, to Maria and her family. And so, on Christmas Eve, he turns up unexpectedly at Maria’s door. The Koslowskis are perplexed, all the more so when Moritz hands out his gifts: a ticket to New Delhi for Emily; a big bag of popcorn for Felix, to prove to Maria that her son is not allergic to corn and that she has only imagined it out of excessive worry; and, for his brother-in-law Kurt, the neighbor with whom Maria has been cheating on him for some time because her marriage had simply become too boring. With the words, “Make something of it,” Moritz withdraws, and shortly afterward suffers a relapse that this time he does not survive. As he is dying, he confesses to Maria that he is a coward because he abandoned his girlfriend when she became terminally ill. By contrast, he says, it would be brave to have a family like hers, even if it is not perfect. Three months later, the whole Koslowski family sets off for New Delhi to accompany their daughter there.