Samuel Bereuther

At a tango evening, a young gay man is introduced to his older partner’s inner circle of friends. But instead of a relaxed get-together, he is subjected to sceptical looks, probing questions and underlying prejudices – until he finally loses it.

Wild times are behind them. Now married, Gino and Benjamin live an idyllic family life with their adopted daughter Lina. Both are doting parents, and deal easily with her medical issues and occasional symptoms of illness. So when her symptoms become increasingly severe, Gino suspects she is being poisoned. Inspired by real events, Munchausen syndrome by proxy: and the killer is in the house.

An empty house. Inside, four surveillance cameras showing different rooms. A woman in a winter coat enters the hallway, holding a large plate of cake. As if in a secret surveillance centre, we look at four monitors and watch the figures in black mourning clothes move from room to room. In the centre of it all is our main character, who tries in vain to escape the countless expressions of condolence. The traditional mourning rite as a social gauntlet. "Dein Beileid" was shot in two planned sequences with four cameras running in parallel. It is a play with the medium of film, an experiment with parallelism. With each viewing, the audience can focus their attention on new aspects and actively explore the plot and relationships. Depending on what we focus on, the film is sad, humorous, or in any case deeply atmospheric.