Kehrtwende (2011)

Thomas Schäfer is an ambitious high school teacher and deputy headmaster. At work, however, he is under increasing pressure, and working with his school choir does little to change that. He is married to Viola, and they have a 17-year-old daughter, Sofia, and a 13-year-old son, Sven. His wife and son are victims of his outbursts of rage, and even the smallest things can be enough to make Thomas lash out. The violence ranges from slaps to severe punches and kicks. At first, Viola makes excuses to other people to explain the injuries and conceal the violence at home. Each member of the family deals with the situation in their own way: Viola is torn between her unconditional love for her husband, her desire to keep the family together, and the effects of the violence on herself and her children. Her friend Gisa, with whom she finds shelter, urges her instead to use every legal means available to stand up to her husband's violence. Meanwhile, Thomas tries to convince his wife of his love by giving her expensive gifts and his bank card. He also decides to attend an anger-management course, which he goes to regularly from then on. While daughter Sofia tries to break away from the family and stays with her boyfriend, son Sven clings to his mother and hopes he will no longer have to live with his father. During a brief visit home, he wrecks his father's study. But when his mother eventually returns, and he does too after much hesitation, Sven barricades himself in his room and attacks his father with pepper spray. At the same time, his wife has an unfortunate fall—an accident, although the clinic where she is admitted afterward wrongly assumes that this is a case of domestic violence. The film's ending is open: Thomas tries to apologize to his family for his misconduct, but his son does not want to accept the apology. He calls his father an abuser and slaps him several times. After a while, Thomas briefly grabs Sven by the arm, which his son sees as another act of physical violence. In the final scene, Thomas gets into his car and drives away while his family stands in front of the house watching him.