In this black comedy set in small-town Bavaria, 11-year-old Sebastian thinks you can never be too young to be a murderer. He's convinced that he killed his mother on the day he was born and is certain he's already been condemned to purgatory. Deciding he might be able to knock off a few years of his sentence by doing good deeds, Sebastian sets out to find a wife for his father Lorenz. When Lorenz and Sebastian's schoolteacher Veronika fall madly in love with each other, it seems the heavens must be smiling. There's just one hitch: Veronika is married.
Acting
Markus Krojer's deadpan delivery as a tiny existentialist
Direction
Rosenmüller makes Bavaria look simultaneously cozy and cursed
Writing
Suicide attempts played for laughs that actually land
Director
Marcus H. Rosenmüller
Markus Krojer
Sebastian
Fritz Karl
Lorenz
Jule Ronstedt
Veronika Dorstreiter
Jürgen Tonkel
Alfred Dorstreiter
Franz Xaver Brückner
Franz
Saskia Vester
Frau Kramer
Johann Schuler
Sepp Graudinger
Sepp Schauer
Proske
Pia Lautenbacher
Evi
Klaus Steinbacher
Toni
Heinz-Josef Braun
Gumberger
Tim Seyfi
Irmengard
Johanna Bittenbinder
Mutter in der Sprechstunde
Monika Manz
Kassiererin
Stefanie von Poser
Mutter Sebastian
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Bavarian dialect used is so specific that even many German viewers needed subtitles; the film became a cult hit partly for this uncompromising regionalism.
Catholic guilt comedy is a surprisingly robust German subgenre—this sits somewhere between Herzog's dark fairy tales and modern grief-satire like Toni Erdmann.
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