Wir sagen Du! Schatz. (2007)

In the big city of Berlin, Oliver Eckstein is left defenseless against the loneliness of urban single life. So, around Christmas, he kidnaps various people in order to assemble a family for himself. “Mom,” “Grandma,” and three “children”—none of them actually related to one another, and all of them lonely themselves—are forced to move with him, “Dad,” into an apartment in an unoccupied high-rise. Oliver has planned ahead: there is enough food, and the apartment is on an isolated floor, seventeen storeys up, making escape or calling for help out of the question. He has also stolen a dog. But someone else still lives next door. “Grandpa” has stayed put in his old apartment and hopes he can continue living here in peace. Relationships develop among the various “family members”: “Grandma” Edna quite likes “Grandpa” Horst; “Mom” Sofia begins caring for the infant; the withdrawn boy Ennio slowly starts to come out of his shell; and the rebellious punk girl Maya even laughs now and then. Before that, though, there are various conflicts and difficulties. Out of frustration, for instance, Oliver turns off the water and locks up the refrigerators after the other members of the “family” fail to show up for dinner on time. He also tells “Mom” that her husband does not love her and has fathered a child with his secretary. When “Mom” manages to escape, she reaches an empty apartment and finds a letter from her husband; she then returns to the others. Despite the oppressive situation and Oliver’s only apparently democratic rules for daily life together, moments of family life begin to emerge. But this artificially created situation of captivity cannot last, and in the end everyone returns to their own lives, which have become less lonely for all those involved.