Writing
The film reconstructs in Berlin a scene in front of the German consulate in Moscow, using a single and continuous camera shot, with no cuts. Russian immigrants are standing and waiting to get a visa; there's a different gate for each travel reason. Help and assistance is being offered in front of the entrances. A woman walks by the waiting line and is withheld: Her bag is too big and must be handed in. She looks for a place where she can leave it.
Because of trouble at school, 16-year old Isabell's single mum persuades her to take part in a self-knowledge seminar in the Sudeten Mountains. What begins as an unusual holiday adventure in an esoteric group, changes when one of the participants has a mental breakdown and disappears. Has the young woman left or is she the victim of a crime? Isabell is alarmed and begins to investigate the seminar and the other members. Her enquiries are met with a wall of silence. When the mutilated body of the woman who disappeared turns up, Isabell's stay at the wildly romantic resort becomes a nightmare.
During an unannounced visit to Berlin, Jakob and Hanna let their three grown up children know that they are no longer able to support them financially. Karla, Arnolt and Sonni seem to live successful city lives; but, on closer inspection, they are in the middle of different life-crises, which have a common cause: lack of independence. After a big family quarrel and a painful revelation of life-lies, every single relative is made aware of how little he or she knows about the others – though still interdependent.
After a chance phone call leads to daily conversations, a widowed restaurant owner and a lonely film actor plan to finally meet in person.
Yak, a troubled pop musician, receives shocking news. His father, who’d rushed back to his home country of Syria decades ago, and whom Yak had nearly forgotten about, is in a coma in a Cologne hospital. There’s another surprise: Yak has a 15-year-old half-sister named Latifa, who speaks only Arabic. Circumstances compel him to travel across Germany with her.
Although Hiba, Rita and Tamar – pupils at the international Schmidt’s Girls College in Jerusalem – have only been receiving classical singing lessons for under two years, their music teacher has registered them for the prestigious competition "Jugend Musiziert" ("Youth Makes Music"). An exciting journey awaits the students: their trip will lead them out of their conflict-ridden everyday life to the first round of the competition, which will be held in Istanbul in 2013. For those who succeed in this round the journey continues to Germany where the competition celebrates its 50th anniversary. Every single girl brings the right qualities to reach the local finals: musical talent, a special voice - and a never ending joy of singing.
