Die Tränen meiner Mutter (2008)

Alex has just arrived in Buenos Aires and is now on his way to the hospital, where his father is dying. The visit is hard for the man in his mid-thirties, because he has nothing left to say to his father. As he heads into the unknown, memories of his childhood come back to him. After the military junta imprisoned Alex’s uncle in 1978, Alex’s parents flee Argentina with him. They leave Alex’s grandmother behind and, after years of wandering across Europe, eventually arrive in divided Berlin in the early 1980s. The family finds a new home in a Kreuzberg factory loft full of eccentric characters. They share the loft with Jürgen, a photographer, and Sik, a withdrawn teenager. Also living there are Günter, a con man who has been in a wheelchair since suffering a stroke and has managed to keep aspiring filmmaker Andrea by his side as his caregiver for five years, and Micha, a charmer and womanizer with a succession of lovers, one of whom, driven by jealousy, gouged out one of his eyes. In this new, unfamiliar world, Alex first has to find his bearings; at first, German sounds to him like dogs barking. But over time he starts to feel at home in Berlin, and his memories of life in Argentina begin to fade. One day he discovers that he has an extraordinary gift: he can use telekinesis, moving objects with the power of his mind. His parents, Lizzie and Carlos, also initially struggle to settle in their new surroundings. Lizzie soon begins making successful documentaries, but Carlos fails to establish himself as a draftsman and gets by doing occasional work as a church and street painter. While Lizzie increasingly adjusts to their new circumstances, Carlos simply cannot adapt to life in Berlin. He feels misunderstood and like an outsider. His homesickness and longing for his home in Buenos Aires often keep him sitting in front of his paintings for hours, listening to tango and losing himself in nostalgia. Lizzie and Carlos’s relationship thus slowly begins to show cracks. Alex notices what is happening and tries with all his might, and the full force of his gift, to save his parents’ love. At the same time, he faces the everyday problems and adventures of growing up. At school and at judo, he has to stand up for himself, and he witnesses Argentina beat Germany in the 1986 World Cup final to win the title. He also faces the very different challenge of confessing his first great love to Hanna, a classmate. At school, it comes up that many of his classmates’ parents are divorced. According to Alex, that is unthinkable for Argentinians. Nevertheless, his parents separate after their housemate Jürgen dies in a fatal accident, when Jürgen’s girlfriend Anita and Carlos reveal to a stunned Lizzie that they have had strong feelings for each other for some time. Carlos leaves the country with Anita to return to Argentina, which Alex holds against him. While Lizzie is left alone with Alex in Berlin, Günter and Andrea set off for Italy to find a new home, and Sik has also already moved out of the shared flat some time earlier. Yet alongside the loss of many people he has grown fond of, life also has a happy turn in store for Alex: in the end, he manages to get a kiss from Hanna, the girl he adores. Alex eventually arrives at the hospital in Buenos Aires, where his father is able to ask him for forgiveness shortly before he dies. In his thoughts, Alex takes his father along on the motorcycle tour of Buenos Aires that his father had only promised him back in Berlin.