Frühlingsgeflüster (2014)

Village home aide Katja’s latest assignment takes her to the Aigner family. The heavily pregnant Claudia Aigner has been ordered by her doctor to stay in bed until the birth of her second child. Katja’s job is to take care of the household and the family’s four-year-old daughter, since the child’s father, Martin Aigner, is fully occupied running his own driving school. Compared with Katja’s previous assignments, this seems like a less complicated job, which suits her well, as she still has her hands full with her move. She has recently moved into an apartment in the veterinarian Mark Weber’s house. To the doctor’s regret, so far she and Mark have shared nothing more than a platonic friendship. In the middle of the night, Martin Aigner calls Katja to tell her that his wife has been taken to hospital and that she needn’t come the next morning, but should pick up his daughter from kindergarten later. When Katja arrives, apparently a little earlier than Aigner expected, she catches Martin Aigner in an unmistakable embrace with Andi, the young driving instructor he employs. Katja is confused and unsure how to react, especially since the Aigners’ marriage was considered exemplary—a view she had shared. She is reluctant to tell Claudia Aigner about the incident, because that is not her responsibility; it is Martin Aigner’s. But he has a problem with telling her, because he was brought up to believe that homosexuality is a great stain and that his family would neither tolerate nor, let alone, accept it. Katja is torn by conflicting feelings. On the one hand, she would like to tell the young mother, who has since given birth to a healthy baby girl, that her husband has been unfaithful. On the other hand, she realizes that she must not automatically project onto others the hurt she feels because of her own husband’s infidelity. It seems someone else knows about the affair too, because Martin Aigner has been receiving anonymous letters and phone calls for some time. He is increasingly under pressure and has no idea how to get his problems under control. But Katja is at least able to help him by finding out that one of the driving students has been in a relationship with the young instructor Andi for quite some time and is now doing everything she can to drive Martin and Andi apart. Katja then contacts Andi and asks him to sort out the situation, since Martin cannot manage it on his own. With a heavy heart, Andi then quits his job with Martin, without explaining his real reasons, so that Martin can resume his normal life with his family. Katja’s daughter Kiki manages to rekindle the interest of her former boyfriend, Matze Gmeiner, who had broken up with her for another woman. But after he had hurt the young woman very deeply, she ultimately decides against getting back together with him.