Petting statt Pershing (2018)

Ursula Mayer grows up in the early 1980s in the countryside of Hesse, trying to face the problems of everyday life. Her parents Inge and Helmut’s marriage is all but dead; her confused grandfather is constantly dwelling on his experiences during the war; and she herself struggles with being overweight and longs for affection. At school, her peers call her “Obelix,” and she is bullied repeatedly. Then, one day, the new teacher, Siegfried Grimm, takes a job at Ursula’s school, bringing fundamental changes to the otherwise rather tranquil village. Siegfried is attractive, has ideals, and peacefully campaigns against the stationing of American Pershing missiles. With his alternative partner, Erdmut, he runs a communal household. They offer courses in sexual self-discovery and grow their own organic vegetables. Ursula is fascinated by Siegfried and feels drawn to him. But he is more interested in other women—and they are interested in him, too. He has sexual relationships with Ursula’s mother, Inge, and with the sports teacher, Katrin Teichert. The latter is also having an affair with Ursula’s father. After Ursula is wrongly accused of knocking down a classmate, her parents send her to a home economics school—the probably most boring place for a girl like Ursula. Ursula begins her own plan for revenge. She lies in wait for Siegfried, kidnaps him, and hides him in a cabin. Meanwhile, her parents and Katrin Teichert try to frame the missing teacher when they find the pistol and hand grenades belonging to Ursula’s recently deceased grandfather in the teacher’s house. Ursula thinks they have gone too far. She drives to the cabin and tells Siegfried that he has to disappear. She drives him to Neuriedheim station and gives him the car; she herself continues on foot. From Ursula, speaking as a first-person narrator in retrospect, the audience learns that nobody knows what became of Siegfried. There are only conjectures about what he did afterward. She herself thinks he probably just carried on as before, “because most people always just carry on.”