Die Aufnahmeprüfung (2012)

Dr. Susanne Meissner, a doctor, has everything perfectly planned: she intends to spend the holidays at the North Sea with her new boyfriend, Markus Sedlow, while her children, Toni, Valerie, and Ludwig, go to the mountains for ten days, as they do every summer, with their father Ferdinand, from whom Susanne is divorced. The children do not know Markus yet, and Susanne does not manage to tell 16-year-old Toni an important detail in time: Markus is Toni’s math teacher, who recently let him get away with cheating on an important final exam. When Markus appears at the Meissner family home for the first time, Toni is both surprised and shocked. He retreats to his room and rejects Markus, even though he is his mother’s first boyfriend in five years. Ferdinand shows up shortly afterward and is already planning an action-packed holiday with the children. But he trips over the family dog and sprains his ankle. Out of necessity, Susanne and the rather unathletic Markus have to go to the mountains with the children. The atmosphere is tense, and Toni in particular has no intention of making things easier for Markus. As originally planned, the family first goes to the climbing park with Markus, where the teacher makes a poor impression. While swimming afterward, Susanne and Markus think that Toni is holding Valerie underwater for fun, and Markus loses his temper when Valerie seems about to go under and has to be rescued by him. Toni feels misunderstood: he had only been trying to help Valerie, who had a calf cramp. Markus apologizes to Toni, but Toni refuses to forgive him. Susanne thinks Toni is acting this way because he wants to protect her as his mother. On a mountain hike, Susanne turns back early, supposedly because she has work to do. Markus continues on with the children and stops at a mountain hut, where Valerie meets 16-year-old Kilian. Although he advises them not to continue to a summer toboggan run, Toni insists on having his way. The four of them get caught in a fierce thunderstorm, and Kilian rescues them in his jeep. He drives them back to the holiday cabin, where he makes a date with Valerie. Ferdinand is already waiting at the cabin. He has had a special brace fitted in Munich and now wants to spend the holiday with his children. Toni is especially delighted and takes Ferdinand’s side. As a result, Markus and Susanne drive to Lienz alone, while Ferdinand goes rafting with the children. At Ferdinand’s suggestion, Markus goes out for a drink with him. They return to the cabin drunk, and Ferdinand hints that he spent New Year’s Eve with Susanne. This makes Markus thoughtful: by then, he and Susanne were already together, yet he spent New Year’s Eve alone because she wanted to celebrate with friends. During an outing to swim at Lake Obersee, Markus confronts Susanne, who brushes the matter aside. He angrily walks back to the holiday house alone. Later, Ferdinand admits to Susanne that he still loves her, but she rejects him. Toni overhears their conversation. On the last day, as everyone sets out together on a difficult climbing route, Markus asks Susanne whether she slept with Ferdinand on New Year’s Eve. She does not answer. Up on the mountain, Toni in turn hints to Markus that something happened between Ferdinand and Susanne while he was sulking. Markus has had enough and punches Ferdinand once he is back on solid ground. He wants nothing more to do with Susanne either and returns home from the holiday early. He ignores her calls, as well as the advances made by his neighbor. Work resumes, and Susanne soon has had enough of Ferdinand, who keeps turning up at her house without being invited. She leaves the children with him for a week, as stipulated in the divorce agreement, but he cannot manage them and brings them back to her after only a few hours. While Markus talks things over with a friend, who urges him to go back to Susanne, Susanne realizes that Toni drove Markus away with lies. She goes to Markus’s place, but finds only the neighbor there, who has secretly let herself into his apartment. Susanne cries when she gets home. Toni tries to explain himself to his siblings, saying that Markus still has a flaw: he lied. He said during the holiday that he had been the junior rowing champion in the eight as a schoolboy, but he does not appear in the final photo displayed in a cabinet at the school. Markus meets Toni at the display cabinet at school and shows him the lineup from the heats: Markus had even been team captain, but was not allowed to compete in the final because a teacher wanted to punish him for a minor offense. Markus was not given a second chance back then, which is why he gave Toni one when he cheated on his math exam. Toni realizes his mistake. In secret, he invites Markus over for dinner, which he has prepared with his siblings. Ferdinand turns up uninvited first, but the children throw him out of the house when Markus arrives. Susanne and Markus reconcile, and Markus has now passed his acceptance test in front of the family.