Ein fliehendes Pferd (2007)

Strandbad Überlingen-Nußdorf, filming location of the opening scene Helmut Halm, a teacher in his mid-forties, has spent his holidays on Lake Constance with his wife Sabine for many years, staying in a bungalow with barred windows by the shore. He is a withdrawn melancholic who reads Schopenhauer on vacation and leaves the marital bed early in the morning to watch rare birds. At the beach, he is unexpectedly approached by an old schoolmate. The relentlessly cheerful Klaus Buch is accompanied by his much younger, attractive girlfriend Helene, known as Hel. He immediately starts dredging up more or less embarrassing memories from Helmut’s youth and confronting him with how lifeless he has become. Helmut soon wants to slip away unnoticed, but Sabine, who suffers from Helmut’s waning interest in her and their overly quiet married life, is not averse to a change of pace and spending time with the boastful, fun-loving Klaus. At Klaus’s invitation, the two couples go on a sailing trip together. Helmut can barely stand being out on the water and has to put up with further humiliation from Klaus, but he can take comfort in the fact that Hel is interested in his quiet intellect and challenges him with suggestive remarks and by displaying her physical charms. Sunset near Unteruhldingen—in this setting, during an invitation at the Halms’ home, Hel sings a Swedish folk song and moves Helmut to tears. An evening invitation at the Halms’ home, extended by Sabine, begins with Sabine and Klaus flirting, as do Helmut and Hel, but ends with Helmut throwing the visitors out after Klaus once again tells him that his life is practically over. The charged atmosphere in the Halms’ home gives way to sex, much to Sabine’s delight. Helmut blames his lack of stamina on the alcohol, although he seems to have Hel in mind rather than his own wife. The very next morning, Klaus and Hel turn up again—as the new tenants of the neighboring house. At the guests’ suggestion, Helmut takes the couples birdwatching in the marsh, where Klaus makes a fool of him: after a long, fruitless search for the rare bittern, Klaus imitates the bird and Helmut falls for it. Sabine is impressed by Klaus when he catches a runaway horse and rides it back at full speed. The flirting with each other’s partners continues and escalates. Klaus and Sabine grow closer while jogging, then swim naked, while Hel, scantily clad, massages not only Helmut’s tense muscles but also his erection. Sabine then warns Helmut that the visitors are seducing them and that they should be careful. After Hel rejects his advances at a shipboard disco, Helmut desperately manages to get “something to smoke.” As he begins to get high, he confesses to Klaus that he is dissatisfied with his life. The next day, Klaus comes to collect him for a sailing trip, just the two of them in a small dinghy. Klaus suggests that they make a fresh start together abroad. He takes advantage of the gathering storm to steer the boat boldly into the waves, while the frightened Helmut wants to turn back. After triumphantly confessing that Sabine had begged him to sleep with her, Klaus is thrown into the raging water by a mistaken turn at the helm from Helmut. Helmut refuses to give him a rescuing hand, and Klaus disappears into the waters. The water police’s search for Klaus is unsuccessful. Helmut bitterly blames himself, but Sabine does not believe he is sincere. Hel lets Sabine and Helmut comfort her and wants to give Klaus, whom she had known for only six months, a symbolic burial in the lake the next morning. Suddenly, Klaus is standing behind them, alive and well. After a brief conversation, Klaus and Helene abruptly disappear without a word, leaving Helmut and Sabine alone. Sabine accuses Helmut of refusing to let himself be pulled out of his bitterness. Helmut replies that Sabine is too afraid of herself to dare go her own way. Provoked by this, Sabine turns away from him, slips her credit card into her swimsuit, and swims out into the lake toward Switzerland. After hesitating briefly, Helmut takes off his clothes and follows her. Finally, the two of them, clinging together to a floating tree trunk, let themselves drift farther into the unknown.