Das bleibt unter uns (2023)

Alexander Nolding and Jana Schenke and their daughters, Luise and Anna, are a well-off family. Alexander is successful as a partner in a sustainability company and is pursuing a political career, while Jana takes care of the house and family and is also studying for a master's degree. When Natalia, a Moldovan woman who works for Jana as a cleaner, picks up Alexander’s suit jacket from the dry cleaner for his birthday party, she is involved in a traffic accident on her way back and is left in a coma with serious injuries. Jana and Alexander only hear about it from the police that evening; the police found their number on Natalia’s phone. Shortly afterward, it emerges that Natalia’s eight-year-old daughter, also named Anna, who had been with her that day, has hidden in the house because her mother did not come back. Anna speaks very little German, but a translation app makes it possible to communicate with her. The fact that Natalia was in Germany illegally and working off the books must be kept secret so as not to jeopardize Alexander’s political ambitions. So, even to the police, they present Natalia as a personal acquaintance about whom they know nothing except her first name. For the same reason, they cannot hand Anna over to the youth welfare office. A lawyer friend also makes clear to them that this was legally an accident at work, for which they would be personally liable for all resulting costs as uninsured illegal employers. A yoga teacher friend, for whom Natalia had also cleaned off the books, expects them to cover her costs as well. While Jana instinctively focuses above all on caring for Anna, Alexander seems for a long time to consider his professional and political commitments more important, leading to several arguments between the couple. Jana eventually finds out where Natalia and Anna live—a shared apartment for women in a tower block in Berlin-Marzahn—and goes there with Anna, but no one there is able to look after her. The women who live there have to work hard and pay their agent, Artur, exorbitant rent; Jana pays Natalia’s rent so that she does not lose her room. Anna therefore continues to live with Jana and Alexander, whose own daughter, also named Anna, has by now become close friends with her. Artur follows Jana to her house and blackmails Alexander with what he knows. As a last resort, Jana flies with Anna to Moldova, using her own Anna’s passport, to visit Natalia’s mother, hoping she can leave Anna there. The grandmother is delighted by the visit, but cannot keep Anna either, since she is seriously ill herself and lives in very modest circumstances. Back in Germany, another argument between Alexander and Jana escalates because Jana is determined to provide for Anna’s well-being, even if they have to sell their house to do so. In Moldova, she saw that Natalia has an engineering degree, and urges Alexander to hire her at his company. Alexander struggles with himself for a long time, but finally gives up his resistance when he realizes that Jana is right; his friend and business partner also supports him in this decision. He reports the illegal employment to the police himself and withdraws his political candidacy. As he tells Jana this during a visit to the hospital, Natalia wakes from her coma and recovers. Eight weeks later, Natalia calls her mother and tells her she will visit soon.