Tessa Hennig: Elli gibt den Löffel ab (2012)

Elli’s beloved husband has been dead for several years, and she is now facing financial ruin. When a letter arrives for the 60-year-old from the Italian holiday island of Capri, she learns that she has inherited a small guesthouse there, where she used to spend her school holidays as a child. She wants to set off for Capri immediately in her car, but its transmission is broken, so she gets only as far as just outside Rome. By chance, she meets Heinz, a nonconformist who is traveling around Italy in a camper van, and he gives her a ride to Naples. When Elli finally arrives on Capri, she meets her older sister, Dorothea, who has also received a letter from Italy. The sisters learn that the recently deceased owner of the guesthouse was convinced that Elli and Doro were his children. Since there are no other relatives, they are to inherit the guesthouse, but they must also prove their relationship to him. So Doro calls her daughter and asks her to bring her mother’s old love letters. Doro is very hopeful about getting the guesthouse and cannot accept that her younger sister should inherit it too. A quarrel breaks out, about not only the guesthouse but also their love lives: Heinz has followed Elli to Capri because he can’t get her out of his mind. He likes her dreamy, romantic nature, which is the complete opposite of the cool, matter-of-fact Doro. Doro, in turn, begrudges her sister this happiness, because she thinks Elli has always had everything handed to her without having to work for it. Everything had fallen into Elli’s lap that Doro had had to fight hard for. And now she is fighting again—for the guesthouse. After Doro’s daughter arrives on Capri with all the old letters, her mother searches through them and picks out the one that names her as the only daughter. She also immediately starts negotiating with the potential buyer, Roberto, who has been ingratiating himself with the sisters since the very first day they arrived. But Heinz happens to overhear a phone call that reveals Roberto isn’t entirely honest. By this point, however, Elli doesn’t care, because Doro has just told her that she would be the sole heir. Disappointed, she turns to Heinz, who encourages her not to give up. Elli then discovers from her blood group that she is in fact a co-heir. Together with her niece Anja, she makes plans for how to use the guesthouse rather than sell it. Anja wants to keep running the guesthouse and realize her dreams there as a cook, and Elli wants to support her. Doro, however, strongly disagrees, and during their argument she runs in front of a car. Fortunately, she is only slightly injured, but the accident makes Doro realize that there are more important things in life than money and career. She manages to reconcile with Elli and make her sister understand that Heinz would love her more than she “deserves.” Elli then says goodbye and travels around the world with Heinz in his camper van. Before leaving, she gives Anja a family keepsake she had received from her mother: a silver spoon fashioned into a bracelet.