Frühling – Alte Gespenster (2022)

Village aide Katja Baumann is torn about her long-distance relationship with Mark. She thought it was over after Mark had lied to her for months, and Tom Kleinke had since come into her life. But now Mark is starting to “cling.” They agree to spend a few days together to find out whether their feelings for each other are still strong enough. Mark would rather spend the whole day with Katja, but she has to work. Pastor Sonnleitner has been called by Simon Fries, who wants to speak with village aide Baumann once again. Katja has mixed feelings about this too, since the young man had held her captive in his cellar for a night. She agrees to talk to him because she knows that, essentially, he had only repeated what his own mother had done to him. Now, after intensive psychological care, he seems stable and “normal.” Simon asks Katja to find his older sister so that he can work through his past with her. When he gives her the name, Katja is astonished, because she knows the woman. It is Catrin Zerbe, the woman who has been living in a motorhome with her two children, Greta and Lotti, for over a year, after losing her job and then her home. But Catrin is no longer at the campsite, and Katja remembers how she can get her daughter Greta’s phone number. She calls the girl and arranges to come by because she needs to talk to her mother. This puts Greta and her sister in a difficult position: they are living rough in the countryside with their mother, who is now dependent on pills, and they are very afraid that the youth welfare office might learn about their unsettled life and take them into care. To keep their web of lies from collapsing, they act as though everything is perfectly fine when Katja arrives. Catrin Zerbe is not interested in what Katja has come to ask, because she had sworn never to set foot in her mother’s house again. She also wants no contact with her brother. Katja leaves without having achieved anything. The next day, she wants to bring Catrin Zerbe a gift from Simon, giving her another chance to talk to her calmly and without the children in the background. She explains how important therapy is for her, so that the old ghosts of the past can finally lose their power. And so, through Katja’s mediation, Catrin gets in touch with her brother. Together, they not only clear out all the old belongings from their parents’ house, where they all intend to live together in the future, but also clear them out of their own lives. Katja’s trial period with Mark ends in a “liberating blow” for both of them. Mark returns to Leipzig for good, and Katja turns to Tom.