Ferien vom Leben (2017)

Lilo Rosenberg’s daughter Carolin earns her living as a taxi driver. Convinced that her mother would be better off in a retirement home, she starts looking for a suitable place. When Lilo finds out, she takes advantage of a moment when Carolin stops at a gas station and climbs into the cab of Sami’s truck to escape those plans. Sami is an Iranian living in exile. Lilo, an artist, is keeping a secret, though: she has just learned that she has terminal cancer. Carolin, too, is facing serious problems. For one thing, her job is making her increasingly unhappy; for another, her private life is slipping further and further out of her control. For her husband Andreas, working at his psychotherapy practice is the central focus of his life, while their son Vincent spends much of his time at the gym with his friend Darek. Mother and son have not had a real conversation in a long time. Lilo did not get into the truck without an ulterior motive. She hopes it will take her to a place from her past that she is determined to visit once more before she dies—a place that holds a secret which still affects the bond between mother and daughter. Although Sami first has to go to Amsterdam, and Hamburg, where Lilo wants to go, is not on his schedule until Friday, Lilo decides to make the trip with him anyway. Sami is a kind man, and he and Lilo quickly develop a mutual affection. Once Carolin learns how ill her mother is, she wants to change her life and is determined to go looking for Lilo. Vincent has tracked his grandmother’s location using her phone, and he sets off in pursuit with his mother. When Andreas gets home, he reads the message Carolin has left on the mirror saying she wants a divorce. He takes this as a reason to look through old family slides. Early the next morning, Darek turns up looking for Vincent and helps Andreas catch Lilo’s cat, since Andreas is allergic to cats. When Vincent learns from a call from Darek that his father is completely distraught over his mother’s wish for a divorce, he is once again reminded of the state of his family, where no one talks to one another anymore. When his mother tries to explain herself, he shouts at her, asking whether she even realizes that he is still there too, and that it is always just “me, me, me.” Shortly afterward, mother and son catch up with the truck. They loudly trade opposing views. When Vincent asks what Lilo wants in Hamburg, he hears the name Jule for the first time. He is astonished when his grandmother reproachfully asks his mother whether she has never told him about Jule—a question that, in turn, creates tension between the women. Sami then decides to take his complicated passengers straight to Hamburg. On the way, the Iranian asks Vincent directly whether he might be gay. During a phone call, Vincent tells his father that Sami has a crush on Carolin, and Andreas decides to follow his family. In the course of the call, he learns from his father that Jule was his mother’s sister. Darek, who has joined Andreas, accuses him on the way of not doing enough for his family, and says that Vincent especially needs a family. Andreas responds by kicking him out of the car. Before they reach Hamburg, mother and daughter have a conversation. Carolin says she was ten years old and had cried out for help, but no one was there for her—not her father, nor her mother. She asks what she should have done and where Lilo had been. “Not there, that’s right,” Lilo replies, and says she only wants to know why the window had been open—who had opened it. “Yes,” Carolin says, it was her; she had opened the window. The question of whether she might have pushed her sister completely rattles Carolin. She runs off in tears. A little later, Sami takes her in his arms to comfort her and finds the right words to soothe her pain. After Andreas has found his family, Lilo has collapsed, and Andreas has had a good conversation with Vincent, they all head for Hamburg together. There, Lilo and Carolin visit Jule’s grave—she lived to be only seven—and then the house where they used to live. The moment when Jule thought she could fly and jumped out of the window comes back to haunt the women. At last, Lilo says the words that bring Carolin relief: she was not responsible for her sister’s death; Lilo herself had not been there and had not been watching. The five of them set off on the return journey. On the way, Vincent says goodbye, as he is going to an audition with Darek and finally stops hiding his affection for his friend. As the others resume their journey, Carolin asks Lilo whether she is hungry too. Her mother is dead.