Another Life

While covering a sensational divorce case, reporter Janice Salsbury becomes disillusioned with the institution of marriage. Convinced that her impending marriage to fellow reporter Billy Williams will result in a loss of her freedom, Janice breaks her engagement and enters a period of Bohemian living. Her mentor, elderly Phillips Hartley, sadly watches as Janice's friends lose all respect for her and finally succeeds in effecting a reconciliation between Billy and Janice.

Three couples get married at the same time. They were friends and lovers from high school, but after the joint wedding they go their separate ways as a couple. However, they decide to meet again to celebrate the copper wedding together, and the starting point is Helsingør. What started out in upbeat, euphoric joy and love has now been not-so-slightly revised. Twelve and a half years have eaten away at the marital veneer that is rust in romance. It is thus a psychological problem film which, in contrast to so many other contemporaneous happiness films, seriously comments on the difficult aspects of marriage. After all, life contains both of them.

The successful doctor Karin (Mariele Millowitsch) is about to retire when she is diagnosed with cancer. The news hits her hard. She decides to use the time she has left repairing the frigid relationship to her only daughter Steffi (Mina Tander). Without further ado she moves into Steffi's apartment building, even though the two have barely talked let alone seen each other in the past year. Quickly, know-it-all Karin realizes that her daughter's life needs a complete makeover: her thirteen year old son Timo (Erik Linnerud) is too chubby and spends all his time playing computer games, Steffi can't assert herself in her job as a teacher and lashes out at her husband Basti (Simon Schwarz) as a result of her frustration. With Karin's presence the small family is shaken to its core and long repressed issues biol up. But the biggest test of stamina is yet to come...

A bistro counter will decide the fate of two women. The first, Marie, the owner of a cafe for forty years in a Breton village, wants to realize her dream and go to the city. The second, Joelle, wants to leave town for the countryside.