Die Stille danach (2016)

At his school in the Tulln district, 14-year-old Felix Rom goes on a shooting spree, killing five students before taking his own life. In addition to the shock of the attack and their son’s death, his parents—the senior operating-room nurse Paula and Michael, a German gym owner and former professional cyclist—face their neighbors and friends withdrawing from them. Their car and Michael’s business are defaced. The family receives numerous insulting letters. The hard drive in Felix’s computer has been professionally wiped. It emerges that Felix was a victim of bullying. This included an embarrassing video that had been circulating online for weeks. Felix’s sister Flora knew about it and seems to know something else as well. Paula learns from a classmate that Felix had not had any friends for quite some time, even though he always told her the opposite. She has to realize that she knows nothing about her son. Apparently, he was unhappily in love with Karla, a girl two years older than him. Only Karla and the art teacher attend the memorial. The art teacher visits the family and brings them a portfolio of photographic works Felix had created recently. At home, he had always destroyed these works, something Flora knew about. Michael then admits that he took the gun used in the attack. A colleague had once procured it for him illegally, and he had kept it in his bedside table without Paula’s knowledge. Michael then turns himself in to the police. The family is offered a change of identity and a fresh start in another city, but Paula refuses. Michael, however, wants to leave and sells his gym at a huge loss. Paula is forced to take leave from work at the hospital. Karla visits Paula and tells her that she never clearly rejected Felix, and that Felix shot himself in front of her. Flora then confesses that she saw her brother practicing with the pistol five days before the attack and even secretly filmed him. She thought it was just a prop, so she did not tell anyone. Michael wants to emigrate to Belgium, but Paula has no desire to go with him. Finally, Paula also has to admit to herself that she twice turned down her son’s wish to hike a long-distance trail with her while on vacation, even though he evidently wanted it very much. At the police station, she is given an account of the entire sequence of events; the shooting lasted seven minutes. At the end, Paula and Flora scatter Felix’s ashes on a mountain.