Schweigeminute (2016)

In the early 1960s, Stella Petersen returns to her hometown after spending 14 years in England, intending to start work as a teacher at the local school once the holidays are over. Eighteen-year-old high school student Christian Voigt, the son of a stone fisherman from a German coastal town on the Baltic Sea, falls in love with the young woman at first sight. But not everyone welcomes Stella’s return. One of Christian’s classmates, for example, calls her a “Tommy tart.” From the very first day, Christian seeks her company and invites her on boat trips. He enjoys the time they spend alone together. She is impressed by how responsibly he helps his father with his work. It is not long before they begin a romantic relationship. But once school starts again, Christian hardly gets any chance to be alone with Stella. In public, she ignores him and tries to keep their relationship secret, since a relationship between a student and a teacher is considered a scandal. So they meet only on a small island, but their relationship does not go unnoticed. While his father is fully understanding of his son, his mother is outraged. When Stella sets off on a weekend sailing trip with friends from England, Christian has no idea how dramatically their love will end. On the contrary, he is making plans for their future together on the small island, where he intends to rent the old bird warden’s hut and renovate it for them. On Stella’s return journey, the sailboat is caught in a storm. As she tries to take down the sails, the boom of the mainsail strikes her on the head, and she falls unconscious into the water. She is taken to hospital, where she falls into a coma. In the middle of the night, Christian wakes from a dream in which Stella is moving farther and farther away from him. He impulsively drives to the hospital and learns that she has died. While a minute of silence is observed for Stella at school, Christian goes one last time to her “Bird Island.” There, he imagines himself happily reunited with her. He throws himself from the boat into the water so that he can be close to her one last time in this way, then swims back to the surface.