Marianengraben

Tim (10) is dead. Since her little brother drowned on holiday in Italy four months ago, everything in Paula’s (24) life – her marine biology studies, her relationship with her grieving mother and her own heart – has been at a standstill. She has lost the will to live.The grief, and above all the guilt, are too much to bear. She should have taken better care of Tim. Because of her goddamn master’s thesis, he dived into the sea one morning to look for an undiscovered species of fish while she lay in bed sleeping off a hangover. Paula has already once tried to take her own life but couldn’t go through with it. When alone, she sees her little brother and talks to him. But as soon as someone enters the room, Tim disappears again. It’s a little past midnight on what would have been Tim’s 11th birthday. Paula’s mother has invited family and friends to a small party. However, Paula doesn’t feel like celebrating. All she wants is to be with her brother. But he doesn’t show up. Unable to think of anything else, Paula leaves the flat and runs to the cemetery. But even there, she is unable to connect with Tim.

Instead, she meets Helmut (83), a grumpy old widower who asks her to help him dig up his wife’s urn. That’s all she needed! When she eventually agrees to help him, they both have to flee the graveyard attendants who have noticed the hole in the grave. As she scrambles over the cemetery wall, the urn flies out of Paula’s hand and the ashes spill out all over her! No time to get upset, because the graveyard attendants are still after them! They hurry into Helmut’s camper van and speed away. Paula can’t go straight home, because they still need to vacuum the ashes off her clothes. As Helmut does so, she learns that he is planning to drive on to Italy that same night to bury his wife Helga’s ashes. Paula decides to go with him. She now knows where she wants to be on Tim’s birthday: Trieste, on the beach where her little brother drowned. If she takes her own life there, she will finally be reunited with him.

Paula sets off to Italy with Helmut and his dog Judy in his old, clapped-out camper van. But during the road trip, this unusual couple keep getting on each other’s nerves. Helmut’s frequent stops to eat or scatter parts of the ashes in a lake are a constant source of irritation. But, for the first time since Tim’s death, Paula also experiences some beautiful moments. She manages to convince the Austrian police that her “grandad” is fatally ill, picks up an injured hen (and names her Lutz) and dances with Helmut while they are both stoned. And she discovers that she and Helmut have more in common than simply the journey they are on together. Not only did Helmut’s son drown in a lake as a child, but Helmut also blames himself for his death! Gradually, a friendship grows between them. When Lutz, whom Paula has become very fond of, is run over by a car, Paula’s guilt feelings and death wish seem to get the better of her. But Helmut does not give up his goal to show her how beautiful and liveable life is, and he asks her an important question: “Do you really want to die, or do you just not want to live?” With Helmut’s help, Paula gradually manages to free herself from the chains of her crippling grief and to find a new love for life. However, when she learns that Helmut is very ill and will soon die, she is suddenly faced with a dilemma. She knows he won’t make it to the Dolomites alone. But is she willing to abandon her suicide plan in Trieste to help her elderly companion?