When we first meet Lara (Corinna Harfouch) it’s her 60th birthday and she’s at her window, ready to jump. But it’s not her age she’s dreading: Tonight, her gifted pianist son Viktor (Tom Schilling) is performing a concert, yet their troubled relationship has Lara questioning whether she is welcome to attend. Over the course of the frantic afternoon, Lara purchases as many concert tickets as she can, handing them out to everyone she comes across. Here, director Jan-Ole Gerster (A Coffee in Berlin) flirts with layers of intrigue: Why is Lara so hard on Viktor? And why is she so conflicted about his career as a virtuoso? A major psychological character study rendered in a beautifully minor key, Lara is sure to strike a chord with anyone who has grappled with the pressures of tough love criticism, or the intense desire to earn approval from those who teach us.

In competition for the New Voices New Visions Award