Familie Wöhler auf Mallorca (2019)

Helmut Wöhler, a former butcher who lives on Mallorca, invites his family on a hike together in the Serra de Tramuntana. During their multi-day hike, the family wants to talk things out. Both Helmut and his son Klaus, who carries on the family butcher shop, have something to tell them. Klaus arrives with his daughter Stefanie. He suspects and hopes that his father intends to transfer the butcher shop to him while he is still alive. But Helmut plans to take out a mortgage and use the family business as collateral. Klaus, meanwhile, intends to sell the butcher shop, having received a very good offer, and wants to break the news gently to his father, who has a heart condition. Still, Klaus is afraid that his father might want to move back to Germany, which he would very much dislike. Things get awkward for Klaus when, during the first leg of the hike from Valldemossa to Deià, his son Mark, who emigrated to the United States, unexpectedly turns up. Helmut had deliberately invited his grandson so that his son could reconcile with him. Klaus angrily leaves the group at first, but soon returns, and Helmut insists they continue their hike together across the Tramuntana mountains. After the first day, which is dominated almost entirely by arguments and Helmut’s pointed remarks, Helmut and Klaus spend the night in a mountain refuge. Mark prefers to stay with his sister at a regular hotel in town. There is little sign of family harmony on the second day of the hike, either. Klaus is also convinced that his father has lost his way. But Helmut had deliberately taken a different route to bring his family to a very particular place: to his new wife Carla, who lives out here on a finca. Klaus immediately fears for his inheritance and is annoyed when his father tells him he wants to take out a mortgage on the butcher shop to buy a finca for himself and Carla. Klaus thinks his father has gone crazy and tells him that this is not even possible, because the butcher shop is practically sold. Right in the middle of this argument, Stefanie springs a surprise: her boyfriend Noah introduces himself to the family and joins their hike. On the third day of the hike, 82-year-old Helmut plans to lead his family to the summit of a mountain, but he suffers a bout of circulatory weakness. Since everyone is very worried, Helmut has to tell them the truth about his supposed heart problems. He had pretended to have them to get his family to come to Mallorca in the first place. Now it is time for everyone to face the truth. Helmut has to hear that his son never wanted to become a butcher and gave up the unprofitable operation a year ago so that he could run the adjoining restaurant in a way that would secure its future. Stefanie explains that, like Mark, she wants to break out of the “family prison” and open her own restaurant in Berlin with Noah. Patriarch Helmut refuses to hear any of this and insists on buying his finca anyway. Everyone runs off in different directions, and while Helmut sprains his foot, Klaus and Mark fall so badly that the mountain rescue service has to rescue them. There, father and son finally talk things out, and when Klaus learns that he will soon become a grandfather himself, he is visibly moved and proud of his son for the first time. Back with the family, Klaus shares an idea with his father: Much as they may value their butchering tradition, they should bury it if nobody is happy with it. If they sell the entire Wöhlerhof, there will be enough money for everyone. Klaus plans to turn to pig breeding and, instead of slaughtering the animals, preserve old pig breeds from extinction. To everyone’s surprise, Helmut agrees, and that evening they all celebrate together. In the end, Helmut admits to his son that the future is better than tradition after all. The film closes with Helmut’s comment: “Screw tradition, the future is better!”