Das Glück am anderen Ende der Welt (2007)

Hanna Westphal, manager of the Grünthal dairy company in Berlin, travels to New Zealand on behalf of her bosses, Werner Sommer, with whom she is also romantically involved, taking her two younger daughters, Mara and Antonia, with her. She is supposed to oversee the company’s acquisition of an organic cheese dairy. Hanna and her husband, Stefan, have been separated for five years and have maintained a friendly relationship, especially for the sake of their three daughters, Judith, Mara, and Antonia. Stefan has begun a relationship with the younger Jennifer Hoffmann. Since Hanna’s eldest daughter, Judith, has been doing a one-year internship on a sheep farm in New Zealand, Hanna also plans to pick her up while she is there and bring her home. But when she arrives at the farm, Judith makes it clear that she will not return to Germany with Hanna and her sisters because she has fallen in love with Jan Holländer, the sheep farmer Wolf Holländer’s son, and the young couple have already planned their wedding for the following week. Hanna’s ex-husband has long known about this and has already received a wedding invitation. Hanna struggles to accept the facts, but in the end she has no choice but to accept her daughter’s decision and let her find happiness in New Zealand. After the successful wedding celebration, Hanna has to—and wants to—return to Berlin, having grown fond of her new son-in-law’s father. Before long, however, another business trip to New Zealand comes up for her. But first Hanna receives terrible news: Judith has died in a car accident. Hanna flies to New Zealand with her daughters and her husband, Stefan, to say goodbye to Judith. Deep in her grief, she blames Jan, saying he had promised to have the old car repaired, even though he was not responsible for the accident. Wolf tells Hanna that Jan carried his dead wife along the road for hours until he finally found help. How could he ever get over that shock? Hanna needs to talk to him. To keep the promise she made to Judith—that Eileen Burrow’s Cheese Company would be able to continue producing organically—Hanna invests her own money in the company, since her employer is unwilling to go along with her plan. Her actions, however, get her into trouble. Her supervisor, Werner Sommer, comes to New Zealand in person to talk Hanna out of her plan and warn her of the consequences Grünthal could impose. Wolf confronts Hanna, saying she has withdrawn from him and is now occupied only with making Judith’s dream come true. He cannot go on like this; if she does not trust him, perhaps it really is best for her to leave. Hanna flies back to Berlin. Sommer tells her that Grünthal has dismissed her without notice, and that the only thing he managed to spare her was a complaint before the labour court. Hanna and Stefan’s divorce is also finalized, since Stefan has since had another daughter with Jennifer, little Rosa. Hanna’s daughter Mara has also decided to go to New Zealand for a year. She has interrupted the dance training she has pursued with great enthusiasm since the age of five. She tells her parents that after her sister’s death, she cannot simply carry on as before. Jan, utterly distraught, sets fire to the house he had planned to live in with Judith and attempts to take his own life so he can be with her again. His father manages to pull him out of the flames at the last moment. At the hospital, father and son have a heart-to-heart. Jan advises Wolf to fly to Hanna. When the doorbell rings at Hanna’s home, Wolf is standing there. Hanna is glad he has come, especially since she is having serious problems with her youngest daughter, Antonia, who cannot come to terms with her sister’s death and has developed deep fears because she thinks her whole family is falling apart. In Germany, Wolf gets in touch with his daughter Laila, whom he has not seen since separating from his wife. At last, they admit to each other how much they have missed one another. Hanna confesses to Wolf that she would very much like to come to him, but she cannot take that step without Antonia, who does not want to go to New Zealand. And then things finally take a turn: Hanna and Antonia go to New Zealand together—and this time, they intend to stay. Hanna also makes peace with Jan, because she knows that he is suffering from Judith’s death at least as much as she is.