SIGN IN

Year of production : 2018

Director(s) : Peter HENGL

It is an unusually cold spring in Austria. 16-year-old British girl Sim is spending her Easter holidays at the remote Austrian farm of the Schwarz family. Sim is the niece of Claudia (45) and Stefan (46), who are using the decrepit cottage as a holiday home together with their children Amelie (10) and Filipp (14). Sim is overweight – she secretly hopes that Claudia, a nutritionist, will help her to lose some weight.

Claudia behaves strangely abrasive: though Sim is welcome she will have to leave before Easter Sunday at any cost – Easter is strictly an affair of the immediate family here. Sim also quickly notices the strange relationship between Claudia and her children: Filipp is treated like a young child and has to eat unusual amounts of food. Claudia and Stefan don’t seem to eat anything, much to Sim’s surprise: they are fasting because of lent, “to have a bigger appetite for the big Easter meal”.

More and more Sim realises that Claudia can’t handle the fact that her children are growing up. The idea that her children could leave her someday is the most terrible thing for her – Filipp’s increasingly rebelling behaviour makes her personal nightmare become reality. But Claudia seems to have a plan to “reconnect” to her children, to “unify” the family – a plan she intends to carry out as part of the Easter meal.

Claudia starts to grow fond of Sim and, surprisingly, ultimately changes her mind about Sim staying – she wants Sim to take part in the Easter meal. It is too late when Sim realises how Claudia wants to unite with her children and what the “Easter meal” consists of, and which role Sim is supposed to play in this “Family Dinner”…