Germany 2015
Opening December 3, 2015
Directed by: Theresa von Eltz
Writing credits: Esther Bernstorff
Principal actors: Paula Beer, Jelia Haase, Jannis Niewöhner, Moritz Leu, Clemens Schick
Four teenagers spend the Christmas holidays in a psychiatric ward for children and young adults. They are part of a new therapy group led by an empathetic and innovative therapist, Dr. Wolff (Schick). However, one of the four, Timo (Niewöhner) has just been released from closed therapy and has a real issue with aggression.
Things come to a head when another member of the group, Fedja (Leu) is threatened by Timo, and unresolved issues between the therapists turn into open enmity. When headstrung Lara (Haase, who played the role of Chantal in Fack Yu Göhte) lures everyone into the woods on Christmas Eve the conflicts unfold.
Commissioned for the ZDF series “das kleine Fernsehspiel,” the story has the look of a theater play. The setting is enclosed and fairly static- impersonal group therapy room, dismal patients’ rooms, the dark wintery woods in back of the ward. The acting is excellent, each character believable and memorable. A psychiatrist who saw the film with me said the situation in the ward was very well captured, especially the pull of egos among the therapists. ()