Die Pferdeinsel (2006)

Katja is a successful single mother and management consultant who specializes in coaching executives. She has several bosses, one of whom is Gregor, the father of her child, Lukas. Since Gregor is married, however, he cannot openly express his feelings for her and Lukas. Lukas has never really realized that Gregor is his biological father, so he sees him only as a good acquaintance of his mother’s. Katja never wanted to tell her son the truth; instead, she convinced him of the adventurous story that his father was a cowboy in Canada. Since Lukas sometimes feels neglected by his mother, he grows increasingly eager to meet his father one day. Until he gets the chance to meet him, Lukas sometimes spends time riding a horse, so that at least in his imagination he can feel close to his father. Things take a dramatic turn in young Lukas’s life when he learns that “his” horse, Tibor, is to be slaughtered. Lukas summons all his courage and steals the horse to save it from its impending death. An accident occurs, and the boy is now certain that this means the horse is sure to die. After realizing this, Lukas shuts himself off completely from those around him and seems to have forgotten how to speak; from that point on, he does not say a word. His mother, Katja, wants to prevent the worst, however, and buys the horse’s freedom. She arranges for the stallion, which had been destined for slaughter, to be taken to a stud farm on a North Sea island, where it can live happily, hoping that this will prompt her son to start speaking again. Katja goes to the island with Lukas, too, so he can be close to the animal for a while. The story takes a turn when Gregor arrives from Berlin to persuade Katja to return to her former job as a management consultant. By now, Lukas has recovered well from everything that has happened, and he initially returns to Berlin with his mother. But through a roundabout chain of events, Lukas comes to realize that his mother has been lying to him all along, and that his father is actually Gregor. Gregor has already decided to divorce his wife so that he can start a future together with Katja and Lukas. But Katja and Lukas do not want that at all. Instead, they agree that they want to go back to the island and spend their time there with Nils, who runs a stud farm on the island.