Das geteilte Glück (2011)

Nicole Wagner lives in poverty with Grille, a scaffolder, and her three children from relationships with different men in a high-rise housing estate in Freiburg. When Dennis, the couple’s shared son, needs a blood transfusion, it turns out that Grille cannot be his biological father. Believing Nicole has betrayed him, Grille leaves the family and moves in with Biggi, who runs a snack bar. Nicole is certain that Grille must be the father of her child. A blood test at the clinic shows that she cannot be Dennis’s mother either. She suspects the newborns were switched and discreetly obtains the address of the other woman who gave birth there at the same time as she did nine years earlier: musician Britta Callenberg is married to a lawyer and lives in an elegant detached house. Her son Sebastian is a sheltered only child. After Nicole Wagner contacts her, Britta Callenberg arranges a maternity test, which confirms that the children were switched. Grille then returns to Nicole, remorseful. While the Callenbergs discuss how to gently tell Sebastian that he is not their biological child, Grille yells it to Dennis during a soccer game when Dennis’s performance fails to meet his father’s expectations. At a meeting in the Callenbergs’ house, the two families get to know each other better and agree not to change the children’s living arrangements. But lawyer Sven Callenberg cannot accept that his biological son is growing up in poverty and petitions the family court to have the boy handed over to him. The authorities, however, stipulate that both boys should first move in with their biological parents for three months. The boys now have to find their way in each other’s unfamiliar world. Dennis rubs the Callenbergs the wrong way with his TV-watching, dialect, and bad manners, but to Britta’s delight he spontaneously plays the cello, as she had done during her pregnancy. Sebastian pleases Grille with his good soccer skills. He is unhappy about getting a 3-minus on his math test, but his new family celebrates him as a swot. Otherwise, he struggles to fit in there. One evening, he runs away and returns to the Callenbergs. Nicole wants to bring him back, but when she sees how well the children are doing there, she spontaneously decides to give her son up for adoption. Grille is furious and leaves the family again. Britta wants to return to work. She offers Nicole an apartment near her house and hires her as a nanny and housekeeper. Nicole becomes part of the Callenbergs’ family life. After they attend an event together, Nicole and Sven become intimate, which does not escape the other family members’ notice. The arrangement then falls apart, and the adoption had not yet become legally binding either. While Frau Metzler from the Youth Welfare Office takes Sebastian away from the Callenbergs, Sven and Grille get into a fight outside the house. The family court rules that the children should live permanently with their biological parents. However, until the decision becomes legally binding, which may take years, they are to remain where they have been brought up so far and maintain contact with both couples of parents. At 14, they are to be able to decide for themselves where they want to live. In the final scene, Dennis and Sebastian discuss their family situations: Britta and Sven Callenberg are planning to divorce, while Nicole and Grille are planning to marry.