Der Mauerschütze (2010)

In the spring of 1988, a young married couple—the woman is pregnant—try to escape across the inner-German border. A border patrol catches them. On his superior’s orders, the young soldier Stefan Kortmann is supposed to shoot the fleeing man in the legs, but accidentally kills him; the woman is seriously injured. — Summer 2005: Kortmann is a senior physician in Hanover and has been in a relationship with his colleague Marie for three years. No one suspects anything about his past. Tormented by guilt, he wants at last to travel to the island of Usedom to see the widow and express his remorse. Marie is stunned when Stefan tells her his dark secret. The young cancer patient Paul, who grew up in a children’s home and has little chance of survival, won’t take no for an answer until Stefan agrees to take him along. On Usedom, Silke Strehlow, the man who was shot’s widow, runs a fishing boat and rents out guest rooms. She has problems with her rebellious 17-year-old daughter, Sunny. Stefan and Paul rent rooms from Silke, but Stefan still cannot bring himself to tell her who he is. He and Silke fall in love and sleep together. Paul and Sunny, who knows about his illness, also fall in love. Marie arrives on the island. Stefan confesses everything to her, and she drives away in anger. Paul overhears their conversation and reproaches Stefan. Silke tells Stefan about her life after the escape attempt, her prison sentence, and her unsuccessful effort to hold the border guards who shot at them legally accountable. The files had disappeared. Stefan finally tells her the truth, and Silke angrily throws him out. Meanwhile, Sunny has taken a boat to fulfill Paul’s wish to go out to sea once in his life. They have a sexual encounter, and shortly afterward Paul dies in Sunny’s arms. Stefan turns himself in to the public prosecutor’s office over the border shooting. Despite everything, Marie wants to stand by Stefan and tells him her assessment: he is unlikely to be convicted, since it cannot be established whether his bullets or his superior’s were fatal. Stefan decides to stay on the island and take over the practice of the village doctor, Dr. Breitfeld. Silke, however, leaves Usedom with Sunny. As they go, she reveals a secret to her daughter: Sunny’s father wanted to call off the escape, but Silke persuaded him to continue. That is why she feels partly responsible for his death.