Bella Vita (2010)

Isabella Jung, known to everyone simply as Bella, is a devoted homemaker. For her husband Martin’s 50th birthday, she throws him a surprise party. Since he had actually wanted to celebrate alone with his wife and would have preferred to take her to Paris, he is not at all pleased with the impromptu party. Out of frustration, he has fun with his young colleague and promptly ends up in bed with her. All the guests present who find out about the affair are just as speechless as Bella, so that very evening the betrayed wife moves into a hotel with their 15-year-old daughter, Lena. Bella hopes her husband will apologize, but his response is rather different from what she expected. Martin admits that he was in the wrong, but also points out that their marriage has become pretty boring in recent years. Bella takes the bait and says she can manage perfectly well without a man, so she and her daughter look for an apartment in Berlin-Kreuzberg. This puts her in a financial bind, however, since she has so far been financially dependent on her husband. Looking for an income of her own, she takes just about any job at first. After realizing that her basic outlook does not really suit that of a sales-driven employee, she is fired on her very first day. The next job does not go much better, but she unexpectedly runs into Martin. Lena immediately thinks her parents are going to make up and that their “adventure holiday” is now over. But when she realizes the separation is serious, she packs her things and moves back in with her father. Bella is disappointed and finds comfort with Sebastian, a divorced police officer who can relate to Bella’s problems. He encourages her to figure out what she actually wants for herself. When Lena decides to go to her mother’s after an argument with her father, she sees that Bella is with Sebastian and turns back, disappointed. She seeks refuge with her aunt Ines, but disappears from there as well. Worried, Bella and Martin set out to look for their daughter. Sebastian eventually finds her and manages to make her understand how much her parents are worrying about her. Happy that the three of them have found one another again, they seem close to reconciling. Bella spends the night at Martin’s, but she is not yet ready to stay with him for good. She wants to keep exploring her new life—going back feels like the wrong direction. Besides, she has just landed a job at a technical-support call center. They were impressed by her pleasant voice and her ability to respond empathetically to other people. She spends her evenings at a small bar, where she occasionally works as a waitress.