Der kalte Himmel (2011)

Hallertau, 1967. Six-year-old Felix, son of the simple hop farmer Paul, is an introverted loner. Absorbed in himself, he listens to the radio and knows all the weather reports from the past year by heart. Hardly anyone suspects that the oddball is highly intelligent in his own way: Felix has a great fondness for numbers and is lightning fast at mental arithmetic, even though no one taught him. However, when he starts school he fails at the simplest tasks. He can't sit still and doesn't understand what the teacher wants from him. In the eyes of other parents, he is badly behaved, the principal wants to send him to a secondary school, and his superstitious grandmother even organizes an exorcism with the village priest. Only his mother Marie braces herself against this wall of rejection because she suspects that her Felix is neither possessed nor weak-minded. Encouraged by the new cantor Alex, who is a harbinger of student revolt coming to the sleepy town, she has her son examined by a Munich specialist. But the backward psychiatrist presents Felix to his students as a prime example of "early childhood schizophrenia." Marie's last hope is the young child psychiatrist Niklas Cromer. Despite great concerns from her husband, who has taken over financially for the court, Marie travels to Berlin, where the idealistic specialist wants to investigate the boy's puzzling behavior more closely. Marie travels to Berlin, where the committed, young psychiatrist Niklas Cromer is treating her mentally disturbed son Felix wants to help. Since the treatment is not covered by health insurance, Marie takes a job as a waitress in a nightclub. While she's away, Felix turns the rented room upside down, so that Marie quickly finds herself on the street again. The rescuer in their time of need is her friend Alex, who finds the two of them a free room in their shared apartment in Berlin. The relaxed coexistence with children raised in an anti-authoritarian manner is good for Felix. The boy is thriving like never before, which means treatment is also making progress. Gradually Niklas gains the trust of the withdrawn child. The psychiatrist finds out that Felix is a mathematical genius. He moves in an abstract world of numbers and sounds. However, other people's feelings and thoughts remain closed to him - possibly forever. After this ambivalent prognosis, Marie no longer sees any point in treatment. But Niklas convinces her to accept her son's specialness. The freewheeling life in the midst of burgeoning student unrest has not left the Bavarian hop farmer unscathed. When her husband Paul comes to Berlin to bring his wife home, Marie is faced with a difficult decision.