SMS für dich (2016)
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Directors
Cast
Karoline Herfurth, Frederick Lau, Friedrich Mücke, Katja Riemann, Nora Tschirner, Tom Beck, Samuel Finzi, Friederike Kempter, Enissa Amani, Uwe Preuss, Cordula Stratmann
A grieving illustrator’s messages to her late fiancé’s old number reach a journalist whose own relationship is falling apart.
The story
Children’s-book illustrator Clara is still grieving her fiancé Ben, who died in a traffic accident two years earlier, and her creativity remains blocked. Encouraged by friends, she leaves her isolated life on her parents’ Brandenburg farm to start over in Berlin, where her publisher is pressing her to create a new installment in her successful caterpillar series. Clara sends reflective texts to Ben’s old mobile number to feel close to him, unaware that the number has been reassigned to Mark, a journalist. Mark reads the messages while his relationship with Fiona falters. As Clara’s friends encourage her to date again, Mark becomes increasingly interested in finding the woman behind the texts.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Children’s book illustrator Clara loses her fiancé, Ben, in a fatal traffic accident. Even two years after his death, her creativity is still completely blocked. Encouraged by her friends, she decides to leave behind her isolated life on her parents’ farm in the Brandenburg countryside and make a fresh start by moving back to Berlin. As her publisher increasingly pressures her to draw a new installment in her award-winning Rieke the Caterpillar series, leaving Clara facing financial difficulties as well, her best friend Katja pushes her into various dates, which all fall through—also because Clara is nowhere near ready to leave Ben behind. To continue feeling close to him, Clara sends text messages to her late boyfriend’s old mobile number, writing them as brief, reflective diary entries. However, Ben’s number has since been reassigned to Mark, a journalist at a major Berlin newspaper. He receives the messages with growing interest, but does not reply. His long-term relationship with Fiona has reached a dead end: while she is pressing for children and a home together, Mark cannot—and does not really want to—picture a future with her. When their relationship breaks down and Fiona leaves him, Mark steps up his search for Clara. He comes across her during the interval at a performance of Orpheus and Eurydice at the opera and promptly asks her on a date. But when they meet again at Clara’s regular haunt, the Gockel, he feels so much pressure to get everything right that he almost scares her off, and asks her for another chance. Clara, who believes she met Mark by chance, eventually falls in love with him. Mark returns her feelings, but struggles with his guilt, brought on by Clara’s text messages, which she unknowingly continues to send to him by addressing them to Ben’s old number. Mark finds encouragement from the successful schlager singer Henriette Boot, who urges him during an interview for his employer to stand up for his feelings. But after a night together, Clara discovers that Mark sought her out because of the misdirected messages, and ends their relationship. Only with the help of Katja and Mark’s friend David do they both find the courage to make a more honest fresh start. Their creative new beginning is symbolically represented by the transformation of their children’s-book caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.
Genres
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