Frühling in Weiß (2014)

In the snowbound little Bavarian village of “Frühling,” mountain farmer Karl Tischler unexpectedly has to go to the hospital. Village helper Katja Baumann is therefore asked to look after the farm and its animals. As she learns from the old man, he has just signed a rental agreement, renting out half his house to a “bigwig” who is due to arrive soon. Katja first looks around the farm and has to round up the cows grazing on the snow-covered alpine pasture. To her surprise, she finds a herd of Scottish Highland cattle there. While she is still wondering how to handle this breed, the Liebherr family arrives. Katja immediately notices that things are very tense between the father, mother, and daughter. Elke Liebherr constantly nags her husband, Walter, who seems sicker than he lets on. He is keeping himself going with various medications and is touchingly attentive to his wife and daughter, Pia. However, both women are very frustrated with their primitive lodgings. Elke Liebherr confides to Katja that her daughter is supposedly addicted to drugs, and that the holiday in this remote place is meant to be a cold-turkey withdrawal. Katja has to make it clear to her that she is responsible only for the animals on the farm, not for the concerns of the new tenants. Even so, she cannot help trying to make sure they manage to resolve their marital and family crisis, too. The next day, Katja runs into Pia in the village. Pia has made the arduous journey down from the alpine pasture all by herself. As Katja tries to talk to her and build her trust, Pia’s parents are beside themselves with worry about their missing daughter. They also blame Katja because the moving company delivered the wrong furniture. There is no point in filing a complaint, since there is usually no mobile-phone reception up on the alpine pasture, and a snowstorm that has begun cuts the farm off from the outside world. Katja cannot get back either, and has to spend the next while with the new tenants. Their conflict grows increasingly heated, and fortunately the village helper is there to defuse one situation or another. For example, Pia confides that it is not she who is addicted to drugs, but her boyfriend. The parents, meanwhile, accuse each other of infidelity; in Elke Liebherr’s case, the accusation is true, whereas her husband is concealing a heart attack he has suffered, the source of his secretiveness. He did not want his wife’s once-existing love for him to turn into mere pity. As the four of them spend days together, a greater sense of normality and awareness of what really matters gradually develops. The couple manage to talk and laugh together again. Suddenly, Walter Liebherr suffers another heart attack in the mountain wilderness, and Katja tries to save his life with the means available. Elke Liebherr’s attempt to get help is thwarted by the still-raging snowstorm. Fortunately, the skies clear the next day, and a rescue helicopter is able to land and take Walter Liebherr to the hospital. There, however, Katja learns that Karl Tischler has since died. The Liebherr family’s crisis is over after they have seen how quickly all of them could have found themselves in mortal danger. In Katja’s private life, meanwhile, her relationship with veterinarian Mark Weber remains “on ice,” because Mark’s old girlfriend Sophie is still staying with him. To Katja’s dismay, Sophie announces that she intends to move in with Mark for good. Katja also finds herself torn between her work and her own needs, and seriously considers moving back to Munich.