Your parents announce they've cut you off. Cue the family meltdown nobody ordered.
During an unannounced visit to Berlin, Jakob and Hanna let their three grown up children know that they are no longer able to support them financially. Karla, Arnolt and Sonni seem to live successful city lives; but, on closer inspection, they are in the middle of different life-crises, which have a common cause: lack of independence. After a big family quarrel and a painful revelation of life-lies, every single relative is made aware of how little he or she knows about the others – though still interdependent.
Acting
Uwe Kockisch and Corinna Kirchhoff weaponize parental disappointment.
Direction
Knoche keeps 88 minutes tense as a held breath.
Writing
Dialogue that cuts because it sounds too familiar.
Director
Constanze Knoche
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film taps into post-2008 anxiety about boomerang children and delayed adulthood across Western Europe.
Knoche shot largely in real Berlin apartments, using cramped spaces to trap characters—and viewers—in escalating tension.
DE
