Home for the Weekend

Marko is in his mid-thirties, has just published his first book, and has been living in Berlin since his university days – far enough away from his parents Gitte and Günter with their bourgeois lifestyle that he could never quite get used to. He visits them once or twice a year, mainly to give them a chance to spend a few days with their grandson.

His hopes of spending a quiet weekend with his family fall short when Gitte, who has been mentally unstable since Marko was a child, after a homeopathic treatment feels so healthy for the first time in a long time that she stops taking her medication. She asks to be treated from now on as a full member of this family and, now that her husband Günther is finally selling his publishing company, is looking forward to their retirement days together.

Gitte’s announcement triggers reserved reactions. Fearing for his mother’s health, Marko’s younger brother Jakob insists she continue her medication treatment, whilst Gitte’s unexpected recovery evidently seems to be foiling Günther’s retirement plans. Marko is the only one who stands behind Gitte’s decision, seeing in it a chance for her and the family.

When Jakob can no longer hide his financial troubles due to setting up his doctor’s practice and building a house, Marko is the only one who respects his mother’s wishes and doesn’t hide this bitter failure away from her and, in so doing, tips his family’s seemingly well-established structure out of balance.

Hans-Christian Schmid was born in Altötting in 1965
and lives in Berlin today. Following his studies at
film school in Munich, he graduated in scriptwriting
from USC in Los Angeles. Schmid’s films include 23,
CRAZY, DISTANT LIGHTS, REQUIEM and the international
co-production STORM. In 2004, he founded
the production company 23/5, which has produced
five films so far: his own REQUIEM, THE WONDROUS
WORLD OF LAUNDRY, and STORM as well as AND
ALONG COME TOURISTS by Robert Thalheim and
THE EDGE by Géraldine Bajard. Schmid’s films have
all been invited to various national and international
festivals and have received several awards.

Selected Filmography:
2009 STORM (director, co-writer, producer)
2008 THE WONDROUS WORLD OF LAUNDRY
(feature documentary; director, producer)
2006 REQUIEM (director, producer)
2003 DISTANT LIGHTS (director, co-writer)
2000 CRAZY (director, co-writer)
1998 23 (director, co-writer)