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
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.