Der Duft von Holunder (2011)

When successful restaurant critic Sofie Möller receives news that her grandmother Helene, who raised her, has died, she has to travel to Brunstorf, where she is confronted with her past. Back then, she was an outsider and was treated like a pariah. For a long time, Tom Sommer was her only friend and confidant, until he, too, preferred to spend time with the others. When Sofie returns to the place where she grew up for her grandmother’s funeral, old memories come flooding back. Because she had to wear the clothes her grandmother sewed herself, her classmates called her “Moth Sofie.” Ute coined the nickname and now brings it back, much to Sofie’s dismay—though this time Sofie knows how to stand up for herself better. Sofie also sees Tom again, whom she had been in love with as a child, and accuses him of not standing by her, either back then or now. The two repeatedly clash, but it soon becomes clear that they have missed each other all these years and that their feelings for one another are coming back to life. Sofie’s negative childhood memories, however, are not limited to her former classmates: she has always also had an extremely poor relationship with her mother, Agnes, who abandoned her back then. Eventually, the two women talk things through, and Agnes tells Sofie what really happened at the time: Agnes was only 19 when she became pregnant, and Sofie’s father was married to someone else. When he learned of the pregnancy, he broke off contact. Agnes then threw herself into her studies and work and traveled around the world for two years. Heinz, her father, threatened to disinherit Agnes and no longer wanted to see her. That was why she visited Sofie so rarely. Soon, more family secrets come to light: since Agnes’s supposed father only returned home from Soviet captivity in October 1955, yet she was born as early as April 1956, Agnes soon realizes that Heinz cannot be her biological father. And he had not been the man loved by Sofie’s grandmother for some time, either. Helene had stipulated that she was not to be buried beside her husband, but in another spot, next to which a second grave had been left vacant. Agnes eventually discovers that this space is reserved for Pastor Sevenig, who is also her biological father. The love between him and Helene began in the spring of 1955, when the pastor took up a new post in Brunstorf and no one could have imagined that Grandma’s husband Heinz would ever return. The pastor tells Agnes about those days: “The air was filled with fragrance. The elderflowers were snowing.” After spending a few days in her grandmother’s house, which was to be cleared out and sold, Sofie plans to leave by bus. But Sofie lets the bus pull away and decides at the last moment to stay after all.