Paternal Leave - 3 Tage Meer

Fifteen-year-old Leo takes a trip from Germany (where she lives with her mother) to the northern coast of Italy in order to meet Paolo, the biological father she has never known. While Leo has thought about this encounter for a long time, Paolo is unsettled by her unannounced visit, divided between the desire to get to know his daughter and what he perceives as the obligations of his present life. A disappointed Leo makes an unexpected friend in the form of an Italian boy who is dealing with his own family problems. Shot across two countries and in three different languages, PATERNAL LEAVE is the debut feature by German actor Alissa Jung. The film has the unusual ability to communicate both the pain of a teenager who has grown up without a father, and the insecurities of a man who is confronted by his past without prior warning. Luca Marinelli and first-time actress Juli Grabenhenrich have great chemistry as father and daughter—conveying, with great depth of emotion, the difficulty of forming a desired bond when so many unresolved affects encircle them. Yet despite their estrangement, Leo and Paolo might discover that they have more in common than they initially thought. (Cristina Álvarez López)

In the presence of Alissa Jung and on October 26th of Luca Marinelli, Juli Grabenhenrich and Carolina Steinbrecher (Camera).

Alissa Jung: DIE MAUER MUSS WEG (2022, K), FARAH (2023, K)