Schwester Weiß (2015)

The very different sisters Birgit Weiß, whose religious name is Martha, and Helene Weiß-Hagedorn are constantly arguing. Martha is a devout nun, while Helene Hagedorn is a committed atheist. Helene does not want her daughter Maja to remain in contact with her sister, either, because she fears Martha might influence Maja. During a car journey, an argument between mother and daughter, provoked by Helene, distracts her husband Theo Hagedorn. He sees an oncoming car too late, causing an accident in which Theo and his daughter Maja lose their lives. Helene is taken to hospital with injuries. There, it turns out that she is suffering from retrograde amnesia, which leaves her unable to feel grief or loss and means she no longer remembers her former life. Helene’s mother-in-law, Dolores Hagedorn, who is now responsible for arranging her son’s and granddaughter’s funerals, does not know how to cope with Helene’s condition on top of her own grief. To Martha’s dismay, Dolores plans to have her son and granddaughter cremated and their ashes buried in a woodland ceremony. After Helene is discharged from hospital, Martha accompanies her to her apartment, which Helene does not recognize at all. Since Helene would not be able to manage on her own, Martha takes her in at the convent. All of Martha’s attempts to jog Helene’s memory come to nothing. Martha feels increasingly overwhelmed. It is especially important to Martha that Helene remember because she desperately wants her niece Maja to have a Christian burial. Only if Helene remembers can she overturn Dolores’s decision not to give the child a Catholic burial. Martha puts her sister under considerable pressure, because it matters to her personally that Maja be buried in consecrated ground in a cemetery. Even if Helene does not remember, Martha says, she should tell Dolores that Maja must be given a Christian burial because that was what Maja wanted. Helene, too, becomes increasingly irritated by the pressure Martha puts on her. She tries to make her sister understand that she no longer believes she will ever remember her former life again. In a conversation shortly afterward between Martha, Helene, and Dolores, Helene unexpectedly leaves the decision about where Maja should be buried in her sister’s hands. Just as unexpectedly, Martha decides that father and daughter should not be buried separately, but together in a ceremony in the woods. When Helene asks in astonishment why she has made that decision, Martha replies that it is what Helene—the Helene she was before the accident—would have wanted. When Martha begins to weep bitterly a little way off during the woodland ceremony, Helene puts her arms around her comfortingly.