Irgendwann ist auch mal gut (2020)

Karsten is a conservative funeral director who leads an orderly life. Shortly before Christmas, his budgerigar dies, his hearse starts causing trouble, his wife wants to finalize their divorce, and Elli, his ever-cheerful, spirited trainee, wants to make his funeral home more colorful and cheerful. At Christmas dinner, his mother Marion and father Theodor tell him they plan to take their own lives together at the turn of the year. Karsten absolutely refuses to accept this; he does not want to lose either his father, who has Parkinson’s disease and used to work as an instrument maker, or his healthy mother, who worked as a pharmacist. So he does everything he can to talk them out of it. In the few days he has left, he tries—with help from friends and family, the police, Argentine bandoneon players, and Sandra, his ex-wife’s lawyer—to stop them from carrying out their plans. Among other things, he breaks into his parents’ home to remove all the medication. The police catch him in the act and temporarily arrest him. He also considers having his parents declared legally incapable. On an outing with them, he tries to appeal to his father’s conscience so that he will persuade his wife to change her mind once more. At the same time, Karsten needs to be at the funeral home if he wants to stop his trainee, Elli, from completely redesigning the business. He is also suffering from a stomach ailment, and his health is getting progressively worse. After collapsing, he is admitted to hospital; he suspects he has pancreatic cancer. Without waiting for a final diagnosis, he flees the hospital to forge a psychiatric assessment that would have his parents declared legally incapable. After his hospital doctor says that he poses a suicide risk because of a serious diagnosis, the police want to take him into custody. Karsten continues his escape to his parents’ house. There he learns that he has gallstones, not pancreatic cancer as he had suspected. After another collapse, he is admitted to hospital again, where he sees his parents alive for the last time. After they die, Elli shows him the extra-wide coffin for his parents, a custom-made one she had commissioned, just as his parents had wanted.