Draussen ist Sommer (2012)

A move is in store for 14-year-old Wanda: her family of five is moving to Switzerland. In Stuttgart, where the family used to live, her father Joachim had an affair that Wanda’s mother, Anna, still has not been able to get over. At first, things seem to be going well. The large house they move into is surrounded by an overgrown garden, and the small suburb of Zurich seems very idyllic. But starting over proves harder than expected. Even her father’s fervent assurances that they will manage and that it will be a wonderful summer do not help. At school, Wanda’s new classmates do not make things easy for her, and they also speak incomprehensible Swiss German. Her sister, Miss Sophie, fares similarly. She does find a friend, but the friend cannot give her the support she needs, and she eventually loses her, too. Their little brother, Bubi, starts losing his hair, barely wants to eat, and then, from one day to the next, stops speaking. And even in their new surroundings, Wanda’s mother cannot forget the breach of trust, though she desperately tries to hold the family together. Whenever the children’s father fails to come home from work on time, her old suspicions start gnawing at her again. The unspoken accusation hangs in the air that he may have been unfaithful again. The family’s former closeness seems lost, and they increasingly live separate lives under the same roof. The couple even spend most nights apart: Joachim retreats to the basement, while Anna lies in bed, depressed—compounded by the fact that she cannot find a job in their new surroundings. The emotional baggage the parents carry with them destroys the lightness the summer might have brought. Soon the old arguments start up again, which is very hard for the three siblings to bear. Each of them, however, develops their own way of coping. Wanda often watches the neighboring family through their large living-room window and thinks she can hear how lovingly they treat one another, which makes her even sadder. In the wake of this, the young girl embarks on a tentative first sexual experience with their neighbor Hannes, who is already 32. He is a little strange, but quite clearly seeks Wanda’s company. When an encounter between them gets out of hand and the confrontation that follows takes on a threatening tone, her family does not offer her the protection she had hoped for. Wanda’s attempts to get her parents to become the couple they once were again come to nothing. She and her sister have to realize that their parents are powerless to give them back what they miss so painfully, and that lost feelings cannot be brought back, however much one might wish to. This realization makes separation unavoidable. While Wanda and her siblings return to Germany with their mother, their father stays in Switzerland.