Für immer Eltern (2021)

Things could hardly be going better for Michael and Anja Wagner. Their children have moved out and are standing on their own two feet, and they have just moved into their new apartment in Munich, so there should be nothing to stand in the way of their newly rediscovered life as a couple. But one evening, their son Niklas unexpectedly turns up at the apartment after being kicked out of his shared flat. The trainee teacher only wants a place to stay for a few days, and they take him in again. Then Niklas’s girlfriend Alina also moves in after falling out with her mother, adding further tension. Alina openly criticizes the way they raised their children, which also leads to conflict between Michael and Anja. Anja reflects on the past. Did she perhaps shelter Niklas too much? Did Michael fail to support him enough and devote more attention to their daughter Stella? Alina eventually puts her relationship with Niklas on pause, and a teaching demonstration that could determine Niklas’s studies goes completely off the rails. Niklas’s efforts to find a new apartment are unsuccessful. Through their friend Karl and his connections, Anja manages to arrange a second teaching demonstration for her son. But Niklas does not go through with it, having realized that he does not want to become a teacher. Michael then throws him out. Anja cannot understand this and looks for Niklas at his friends’ homes. She also goes to Karl’s and sleeps with him. Michael and Anja now avoid each other in their own apartment, but after a while they reconcile. The couple visits their son, who is now living in a cabin in the mountains. Niklas has had time there to think about the future, and would like to work with young people. It is a conciliatory reunion, and his parents leave feeling hopeful. When they get back to their apartment, their daughter Stella is already waiting for them. She has been fired and wants to move in for a few days, just as Niklas did before her.