Winnetous Weiber (2014)

It should be a relaxed holiday with her daughter Nora - at least that's how the single mother Maren Bogner imagined it: a journey in the footsteps of Winnetou, a ride to the breathtaking locations of the legendary Karl May films, a holiday of discovery in Croatia. Although Nora doesn't share her mother's enthusiasm, a little variety never hurts. They are accompanied by Nora's best friend, the successful but stressed businesswoman Gabriele Hochmann with a GDR past. Arriving at the starting point of their guided "Winne Tour", the three women make the acquaintance of Elisabeth zu Hallbach-Süren, who, together with her young assistant Simone Lehmann, has also set out for the scenes of German cinema nostalgia. However, not purely for the sake of adventure: the demure aristocrat wants to scatter the ashes of her deceased husband, a lifelong Karl May fan, in Silbersee. It soon turns out that the Wild West romance Maren longed for had long since been replaced by the organizers' commercial calculations, embodied by their tour guide Alejandro, a cowboy caricature with a macho look. Instead of comfortable hotel rooms, there are sparse tents, WLAN reception is unthinkable, wild animals, shying horses and obtrusive male images disturb the idyll. The art of staying in the saddle is also mastered by some of the women, who are so fundamentally different in character, better than others. Although Maren tries desperately not to let her idealistic enthusiasms take away from her, at some point she has to admit that this journey is developing into an increasing stress test and not every one of them is made for the associated hardships. Worse still, with every kilometer that leads the group deeper into the Croatian wilderness, the masks begin to fall: closely guarded secrets are revealed, uncomfortable truths are spoken, mutual relationships falter. At some point the noise between the women is louder than a shot from a silver can - and none of them survive the adventure unscathed.