HOME FOR THE WEEKEND

WAS BLEIBT

By Hans-Christian SCHMID

THE MATCH FACTORY - as SALES All rights, World

Drama - Completed 2012

During a weekend gathering, the seemingly stable fabric of a family comes undone when feelings differ about the mother's unexpected decision to stop her longtime medication for mental illness... From the acclaimed director of STORM, REQUIEM and DISTANT LIGHTS.

Festivals
& Awards

Berlinale - Berlin IFF 2012
Competition
    • Year of production
    • 2012
    • Genres
    • Drama
    • Countries
    • GERMANY
    • Languages
    • GERMAN
    • Duration
    • 88 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Hans-Christian SCHMID
    • Writer(s)
    • Hans-Christian SCHMID
    • EIDR
    • 10.5240/6F91-C4EA-F1E9-D6B2-4C73-I
    • Producer(s)
    • Britta KNÖLLER (23/5 Filmproduktion GmbH), Hans-Christian SCHMID (23/5 Filmproduktion GmbH)
    • Synopsis
    • Marko is in his mid-thirties, has just published his first book, and has been living in Berlin since his university days – far enough away from his parents Gitte and Günter with their bourgeois lifestyle that he could never quite get used to. He visits them once or twice a year, mainly to give them a chance to spend a few days with their grandson.
      His hopes of spending a quiet weekend with his family fall short when Gitte, who has been mentally unstable since Marko was a child, after a homeopathic treatment feels so healthy for the first time in a long time that she stops taking her medication. She asks to be treated from now on as a full member of this family and, now that her husband Günther is finally selling his publishing company, is looking forward to their retirement days together.
      Gitte’s announcement triggers reserved reactions. Fearing for his mother’s health, Marko’s younger brother Jakob insists she continue her medication treatment, whilst Gitte’s unexpected recovery evidently seems to be foiling Günther’s retirement plans. Marko is the only one who stands behind Gitte’s decision, seeing in it a chance for her and the family.
      When Jakob can no longer hide his financial troubles due to setting up his doctor’s practice and building a house, Marko is the only one who respects his mother’s wishes and doesn’t hide this bitter failure away from her and, in so doing, tips his family’s seemingly well-established structure out of balance.