Vier Saiten (2020)

Professor Karl Michaeli, a former star cellist, is a grump through and through. After his beloved wife Maria died in 2014, the retired music professor lives alone in a three-room apartment in Vienna. To his dismay, several foreign families are housed in the apartment building where he lives. The building’s owner, Esther Polgar, is also widowed and free-spirited, and she houses refugees in her building. They are a particular thorn in Karl’s side. Among the residents is 16-year-old Hamid, who attended a German school in Damascus and lost his family in the war in his home country of Syria. After a break-in at his apartment and despite his initial reservations about Hamid, Karl discovers his neighbor’s musical talent and takes him under his wing. Karl now tries to make up for the musical support he failed to give his own son Alexander, known as “Sascha,” from whom he has been estranged for years. After the break-in at his apartment, Karl withdraws his complaint against Hamid. However, when Hamid initially refuses to take cello lessons from him, Karl—who repeatedly calls him “you Syrian little brat”—calls the police again. They question Karl’s mental state and inform his son that Karl is to be declared legally incompetent. His son then gets back in touch with him and announces that he will apply to become his legal guardian and send him to a retirement home. Meanwhile, Esther Polgar asks her friend and lawyer Raimund Hinteregger to terminate Karl’s tenancy because he is poisoning the atmosphere in the building and keeps calling the police there. To be able to practice, Hamid steals an instrument from the music university. He also has his eye on Yasemin, although her brother Aslan is not at all pleased about their relationship. During an argument, the bridge of the stolen cello breaks. Karl tries to repair it and discovers a sticker reading “Property of the University of Music Vienna,” even though Hamid had claimed he rented the instrument. Karl tells Hamid to return it. But Hamid is spotted and arrested as he does so. Karl asks Esther for help, and her lawyer, Raimund Hinteregger, is to represent Hamid. At the music university, Karl meets his former student Schauer, who tells the police that there has been a mistake because Hamid is his student. The university then withdraws its complaint. Karl gives Hamid his son’s cello, since his son has no interest in the instrument. When Hamid receives a deportation order, Karl visits Director Hermann Gruber and asks him to arrange an audition for Hamid for a place at the university, since this would guarantee recognition of Hamid as a refugee. The director initially hesitates, but agrees after Karl mentions an affair from his past. At the audition, where Hamid performs Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, his friends Yasemin, Geri, and Aslan are present, as is Karl’s son Alexander. Hamid begins by playing with total commitment, as Karl instructed him, but suddenly stops before the performance is over and leaves the hall. His friends and Karl follow him, and Karl is able to tell Hamid that he passed the audition. Lawyer Hinteregger applies for a postponement of the deportation.