Fallen (Falling)

In a small town, a popular local schoolteacher passes away. Five of his former students who are now grown up come back home for the funeral, the first time the former friends have seen each other in fourteen years. Nina (Nina Proll) is about to have a baby; Brigitte (Birgit Minichmayr) is a teacher herself; Alex (Ursula Strauss) works at an unemployment office; Carmen (Kathrin Resetarits) is an actor; and Nicole (Gabriela Hegedüs) is a mother on temporary leave from prison. Their reunion goes long into the night of the funeral and into the following day as they all are forced to reflect on everything that has changed over the intervening years. Adolescent conviviality may have been rediscovered, but old wounds are reopened as well; everyone must reappraise childhood dreams that have not necessarily come to fruition. What does it mean to leave youth behind? How does one make peace with the hand one has been dealt in life?