Für immer Sommer 90 (2021)

It is the summer of 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic is everywhere, when protagonist Andy is confronted by his past and sets out to clear his name of the accusations made against him. Andy Brettschneider is a successful investment banker who left his East German home 30 years earlier, in 1990, and, after stints in Marseille and Lyon, now works in Frankfurt am Main. He used to call himself Andi, but today prefers the more internationally familiar English form, Andy. He has become a multimillionaire and treats himself to a steak adorned with gold leaf after his firm made a large profit by investing in hydrogen-powered cars. He gets along well with his employee and colleague Bea, and they are planning to move up in the company together. But suddenly his business partner informs him that allegations of rape have been made against him. He is therefore told not to go on a planned business trip to Malmö for the time being. Andy is shocked, but receives no further information about the accusations or who made them. Andy’s mother tells him that a “family friend” has written to her, saying that Andy forced her to have sex at a party in the summer of 1990, on the day of the World Cup final. She says Andy ruined her life. Andy tries to convince his mother that there is nothing to the accusations; he has no recollection of that evening at all. But since he abruptly left for Brussels the next morning and has had no contact with the others since, doubts remain. So he sets out to visit his friends from back then and get to the bottom of things. His first stop is Salzgitter, where his former girlfriend Katrin works as a medical assistant. At first, Katrin is pleased by his unexpected visit. They talk about the past, and he learns that she spent some time in Los Angeles and is now content in Salzgitter. She reproaches him for disappearing for 30 years, something she is still angry and hurt about. She also tells him that he “pushed” her at the party and still owes her an explanation. Otherwise, she has no further memories either. Andy suspects that she wrote the letters and offers her money to put the matter behind them. Katrin is outraged and sends Andy away. Andy then drives to Neuruppin to see Sven, who now has an aristocratic surname because of his marriage. Sven is very happy to see his successful old friend and, when Andy asks about what happened, plays it down: they had all drunk a lot at the party, were turned on, and had sex and a good time. Once again, Andy has to listen to reproaches about his long silence. Sven went to Leipzig to study with his girlfriend Annett, but they later broke up. He now works as an insurance agent and motivational trainer, as Andy reads on a certificate. Sven would like to work with Andy, but Andy does not even stay for a barbecue, partly because he wants to continue on to see Annett, who, Sven has told him, still lives in Leipzig. In Leipzig, Andy visits Annett, who lives with her husband and daughter in a large apartment. She, too, reproaches him for getting in touch only after 30 years. Annett has received an email from Marina accusing Andy of rape; she says she no longer knows how she can go on living. Annett confronts Andy with pointed questions, such as whether he has a wife and children, what he does for a living, and how much he earns. She also tells him to think about the difference between consensual sex and rape. When he replies that he does not rape, whether in love or in any other way, she accuses him of constantly raping other people in his profession, since financial gain is only possible when others suffer losses. She challenges him over managers’ greed for profit. The accusations would not fit the Andy she knew back then, she says, but she is not sure about the Andy she has just met today. Andy continues on to his (fictional) hometown of Grievow, near Schwerin, to visit Marina. Judging by her small car, she works in home care, and she lives with her mother in a house in need of renovation. Andy asks her reproachfully what the accusations are about and what she was thinking. Marina says she knows nothing about the letters, including who wrote them. Like Katrin, Sven, and Annett, she reproaches Andy for simply running off back then. As for the sex, she says it was not rape, but she did not really want it either. The incident destroyed her relationship with Ronny and threw her life into disarray. Personally, however, she makes no direct accusation against Andy over it. Andy sets off to see Ronny, who still lives near their hometown of Grievow. There he first meets Ronny’s significantly younger sister Berit, who has since opened a bistro in the old “party room” right by the lake. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to close the bistro soon after it opened. Ronny lives a reclusive life at the campsite right next to the bistro, on the same lake. After leaving school, he spent 18 years in the Bundeswehr and served in Kosovo and Afghanistan; some events from that time weigh heavily on him. He, too, resents Andy for leaving 30 years earlier and holds him partly responsible for his current state. They had had a good time and played handball together, he says, and the sudden departure does not make sense. Andy agrees and says, in a conciliatory tone, that he owes everything he is today to Ronny. After a few beers, Ronny admits that he wrote the letters and the email to provoke Andy into reacting. He says he had passed Andy the ball, just as he did back when they played handball, and Andy has now taken it. Andy gets angry and accuses Ronny fiercely of destroying everything he has built over a long-ago “teenage fuck.” After Berit intervenes, Andy calms down, and a little later the three of them drink beer together in front of the boathouse. The next morning, Andy talks with Berit and is surprised to learn that, being a few years younger, she had had a huge crush on him back then, so his departure had hurt her too. On the spur of the moment, Andy decides to make €250,000 available to her so she can continue pursuing her dream of opening her own bistro by the lake. At that moment, a shot rings out. The two of them run to Ronny’s hut and see that he has shot himself. After the police have arrived and the body has been taken away, Bea arrives in a taxi. She gives Andy a ride in his car. He does not want to talk about what happened, but suddenly asks her to pull over on the right-hand side of the road by the lake. He takes off his clothes and goes swimming in the lake.