Liebe Amelie (2005)

Seventeen-year-old Amelie moves with her parents, Bernd and Kristin, from the provincial town of Burghausen to Munich. While her parents are busy settling into their new surroundings, they fail to notice that their daughter never manages to find her footing. She cannot make new friends, grows lonely, and becomes depressed. A suicide attempt fails, but the small family dismisses it as a one-off incident. Afterward, her mother Kristin tries to be especially caring toward her daughter, but does not realize how suffocated Amelie feels as a result. Meanwhile, her father Bernd has growing doubts about the theory that it was a one-off incident. He is the first to suspect that Amelie’s behavior was deliberate, but shies away from the consequences. The situation escalates when Amelie, a fanatical animal-rights activist, chains herself naked to the gate of Bernd’s new company to protest its indirect involvement in animal testing. Amelie is completely beside herself and almost impossible to calm down, so her father eventually agrees to have her admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Kristin is outraged and immediately tries to get Amelie discharged, even though the doctors strongly advise against it. They say Amelie is manic-depressive and needs professional help. But her mother is not yet ready to accept this. Back at home, Amelie is now also burdened by her parents’ separation. As their daughter’s condition continues to deteriorate, Bernd and Kristin decide to take her on vacation for a few days. There, the situation finally spirals out of control. Amelie wanders aimlessly through the night and is also raped. Now Kristin, too, is ready to acknowledge that her daughter is seriously ill. Amelie begins inpatient treatment, where she learns to live with her illness and to break free from her mother’s smothering love. Afterward, she does not return to her parents, who want to give their relationship another try, but instead begins an independent life in a supervised group home.