Bella Australia (2012)

Isabella Jung, known to everyone simply as Bella, lives alone with her daughter Lena in an apartment in the Kreuzberg neighborhood after separating from her husband. At Lena’s graduation party, they present themselves to everyone as an apparently happy family, but Martin wants a divorce from his wife. He wants to go into business for himself, and Bella would then be liable as his co-guarantor, something Martin claims he does not want to burden her with. Lena surprises her parents by announcing that after graduating she will go to Australia for a year as an au pair. Now without a husband or daughter, Bella feels truly superfluous and would most like to go with Lena. After all, there is really nothing left for her here, and she is not satisfied with her job at a technical support call center either. On impulse, she looks online and finds a job listing in Australia that seems right for her. However, she has not worked in her trained profession for years, and she also lacks several other qualifications for a work-related stay abroad. A real powerhouse, she refuses to accept this so easily and first signs up for an English course. Then she tries to refresh her knowledge and skills in physiotherapy—or at least obtain a certificate of competence. Someone recommends the “Oasis” for this purpose. She goes there right away, but hesitates because additional services are also expected there for a certain surcharge—services Bella is unwilling to provide. As so often, Bella discusses her everyday worries with her friends at “Antonia’s Bar.” With his own divorce approaching, Sebastian is hopeful about his chances with Bella, but those hopes seem to evaporate when he learns of her plans to emigrate. Lena tries to intervene and “leaves” Sebastian her room at her mother’s place. She simply forgets to tell her mother, though, so Sebastian suddenly stands half-naked in front of Bella and her sister, who wanted to “move in” with Bella because of a marital crisis. Bella’s goal of obtaining a work permit for Australia leads her to visit the Oasis once more after all. To get the required certificate of competence, she makes a deal with the owner. An employee of the Australian embassy, who finds Bella’s certificate suspicious, visits the Oasis and tips off the trade inspectorate to inspect the supposed massage parlor. Bella and her colleagues Kristina and Maike are arrested during the raid, but Martin’s help gets them released quickly. Bella realizes that she actually does not want to go to Australia after all, but that she has otherwise created quite a mess, costing two people who had nothing to do with it their jobs. To make amends, she takes over the Oasis while its owner is in prison. Shortly before the divorce hearing, Bella meets Martin once more, and when it gets late, she lets him spend the night at her apartment. Sebastian and Martin run into each other in Bella’s hallway and realize that they are both pursuing the same woman, though neither will admit it. Martin tries to withdraw the divorce proceedings because his attempt to go into business for himself has failed. But Bella insists on the divorce, since she is now going to have her own company and does not want to drag Martin into any legal trouble over it.