Keine Angst (2009)

Thirteen-year-old Becky has a heart condition. To her three siblings, she is not only their big sister but also a substitute mother, since their actual mother devotes herself mainly to alcohol, the television that is always on, and a succession of male acquaintances. Her best friend is Melanie, who lives across the hall. With inexperienced Becky, Melanie finds the sense of security she completely lacks with the boys from the high-rise estate, who use her as a casual plaything in turn. One morning on the bus, Becky meets Bente, a fourteen-year-old boy from another school who lives with his parents in a lovely terraced house—a life that seems like a fairy tale to her. The two shyly fall in love. But Bente’s parents want to send him to boarding school because he is constantly picked on by the tough boys, who use force to take away his status symbols, such as his MP3 player. The new couple spend some lovely days together, even though Becky neglects her duties as a substitute mother as a result and gets into trouble, while Bente’s parents come to believe that he should find a girl from their own social class. When Thomas, the new man in Becky’s mother Corinna’s life, moves in with them, the family chaos seems to improve somewhat. Corinna wants to take care of the younger children again and so relieve Becky of some of the burden. But on the eve of her fourteenth birthday, of all times, Becky is abused by Thomas. After the rape, Becky wanders around, disoriented. She goes looking for Bente, but his mother brushes her off with a 50-euro note “for her birthday.” Meanwhile, Bente runs away from his father as he tries to take him to boarding school, and goes looking for Becky. He at least wants to say goodbye to her. Distraught, Becky gets drunk with Melanie’s crowd and collapses. Her heart has stopped, but Bente finds her and manages to revive her.