Das Versprechen (2020)

Eleven-year-old Bendix lives in Berlin with his father, Fabian. His mother died a few years ago. Bendix has willingly taken on the role of homemaker and cares for his depressed father, who can barely manage to go to work as a subway driver. At first, the film gives little sense of any wider social world, leaving Fabian dependent on Bendix’s support—a responsibility Bendix patiently bears without complaint. They love each other dearly and share happy moments, too. After a school-sponsored run, Bendix meets a girl beneath an underpass who is stubbing out a cigarette on her leg. He asks her about it and isn’t put off even when she yells at him to get lost. Then she runs off, leaving her phone and torn sponsorship sheet behind. Bendix uses them to find out who she is and follows her after school to a psychiatric day clinic. Her name is Jule, she is 16, and she suffers from severe outbursts of anger and self-harm. At school, the other girls avoid and bully her, and her parents feel helpless in the face of the situation. Bendix returns her phone and asks her to take him into the clinic with her. She laughs at him and demands that he get her a gun in return. He actually orders a replica pistol online and hands it over to her a few days later. At the clinic, Bendix tells a nurse about his father’s symptoms, hoping to get medication. From Jule, he learns that his father probably has depression and should seek treatment. Bendix has become important to Jule because, in his kind and caring way, he likes her just as she is; in turn, she fills the place of a sibling he never had. With Jule’s help, Bendix arranges for Fabian and Jule’s psychiatrist to meet for ice cream. Fabian accepts the offer of an initial consultation and agrees to undergo inpatient treatment, which means Bendix will have to live temporarily with a foster family. After his father has gone in for inpatient treatment, Bendix doesn’t go to the foster family as agreed. Instead, he stages a bank robbery with the replica pistol, gets himself arrested, and demands to speak to Jule. He tells her that he feels guilty. He had promised his father never to leave him; if he went to the other family, he would be breaking his word. Jule disagrees: Fabian needs time to himself now to overcome his illness, and he will always be Bendix’s father. Reassured by this, Bendix changes his mind and goes to the foster family after all. Jule’s parents are impressed by her behavior at the police station. Joint therapy sessions show that she is making good progress, and soon she no longer has to go to the clinic every day. In the final scene, Bendix visits his father at a clinic, where his father is also making progress.