Esther Bernstorff

From her childhood, Nadia felt responsible for her mentally disturbed and recently homeless mother, Irene. For a while Nadia had cut off all contact with Irene and tried to live her life, until Irene suddenly appears drunk at the wedding of her son, Mickey. Nadia sinks back into this quagmire of love and hate, responsibility, guilt and shame. She gathers her strength to find a home for her mother while at the same time she hides from her partner, Ian, the fact that the drunk woman at her brother's wedding was her mother. But no one can oppress Irene, let alone her daughter.

Alex, Fedja, Timo and Lara are four troubled teens for whom the upcoming Christmas eve isn't a time of peace and joy: Since they all have a history of escalating family conflicts, they'll be spending the holidays not at home, but in a psychiatric ward. The utterly different adolescents not only have to adjust to one another, but also have to confront themselves in exhausting therapy sessions. Yet thanks to the unorthodox psychiatrist Dr. Wolf, the sessions take a turn for the unexpected - and the four experience a Christmas which they will never forget.

How should you spend your time if your days are numbered? This is the question facing Linda, a young woman suffering from a congenital heart defect. Contrary to her doctors’ expectations she has managed to survive to celebrate her thirtieth birthday, but with an operation looming, Linda nonetheless feels a deep need to spend what might be her last weekend with her two sisters: Katharina who is older, and Clara who is younger than her. Linda must use their journey, which begins at their family’s weekend house and ends in Paris, to examine the ways in which her family has been fundamentally affected by her illness; she must also consider how much she can expect from herself and her sisters – faced as they are with the possibility of her death.

A teenage girl helps an escaped fugitive flee Germany into France, after extracting a promise that he will help her commit suicide.

Though she only knows his first name and that he ‘works in coal’, Molly, a young Irish woman, travels to a small Polish town to find the man with whom she had a memorable one-night stand several months before. Armed with nothing more than a postcard and her own tenacity, she sets about finding her past lover, despite her landlord’s admonishments that all the coal mines closed years ago.

A suburban German family which, at first glance, appears quite typical. There’s the hardworking parents with little time for their off-spring. Twelve-year-old Marcus and his annoying little sister, as children will do, both strive for the attention of their parents. One night, Marcus makes a terrible discovery that shatters his innocence and forever changes his relationship with his father.