Die Habenichtse (2016)

Hans and Jakob are two young lawyers living in Berlin in 2001. When the two meet at a restaurant, Jakob spots an announcement in a magazine for an exhibition opening, accompanied by a picture of Isabelle. She was the great love of his student days, but they had lost touch afterward. Hans encourages Jakob to go to the exhibition opening. He cannot come along himself, as he has an appointment at the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11. While Jakob meets Isabelle the following evening, just as he had hoped, Hans is killed in the terrorist attack. From then on, his death casts a shadow over the rekindled relationship between the two. Jakob is offered a new position in London in Hans’s place. He asks Isabelle, who works in Berlin as a freelance graphic designer for children’s books, to come with him. The two marry, and Isabelle follows him to the United Kingdom. Their relationship, however, comes under considerable strain. Jakob tries in vain to distract himself from his friend’s death through work. Isabelle is unable to establish herself professionally in her new country. She begins a destructive relationship with Jim, a drug dealer, but he cannot give her the fulfillment she had hoped for either. Both realize that their lives are increasingly falling apart and that they are on the verge of losing their relationship. At the end of the film, they try to make a fresh start together.