Home Stories | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review

The Unbearable Likeness of Being: Trobisch Mines Banality in Family Drama

Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way…and sometimes those unhappy ways are boring. Such is the case with Home Stories (Etwas ganz Besonderes), the third directorial effort from Eva Trobisch, a film which the English language title already indicates as quite nondescript in an effort to encapsulate what it’s actually about. The original German language title, translates to ‘Something Very Special,’ which in actuality is more apt in capturing how innocuously twee Trobisch’s screenplay tends to be as it focuses loosely on three different narrative strands affecting one particularly bland family in Greiz. They’re still somewhat haunted by the ghosts of East Germany, one of the tangential conflicts revolving around a rising trend in fascism (though referenced ideologies are presented only in broad strokes, assisting in diluting an already vague perspective).

At the center of this maelstrom of boredom is the willowy neophyte Lea (Frida Hornemann), thrust into the limelight as a successful competitor in a popular reality television show in the vein of “American Idol.” Supposedly she’s undergoing something of an identity crisis when she’s asked what makes her special during the audition process (involving a hammy Thomas Schubert, from Petzold’s Afire and Ulrike Ottinger’s The Blood Countess). There’s significant conflict involving her mother Rieke (Gina Henkle), currently pregnant from her new beau but falling back into old patterns with ex Matze (an equally bland Max Riemelt). Auntie Kati (Eva Löbau) has a broken foot and has just moved back to Griez to restore a local museum which seems to have the community in an uproar. Lastly, grandmother Christel’s (Rahel Ohm) drama regarding an impending conference of politically suspicious individuals at the family owned B&B leads to sabotage from her socialist grandson, Edgar (Florian Geißelmann), who accuses her of collaborating with Nazis. For extra measure, Lea’s best friend Bonny (Ida Fischer) is sleeping with Edgar, which is only partially the reason they’ve drifted apart.

Whatever identity crisis Lea seems to be having suggests she has chosen her aunt as both the personality to model herself after and her sounding board for sleazy little white lies so she can seem more exciting. The development of this subplot, however, is so poorly developed it merely makes Lea seem like a budding sociopath. On the other hand, none of her friends or family members are remotely interesting, so Kati’s bureaucratic anguish naturally might seem more magnetic. But with zero dramatic tension, there’s nothing really at risk, and so we drift along through the contest as the rest of her family slowly swirl around each other. Ironically, for such a large cast of characters, collectively they don’t generate any ‘home stories,’ but instead clot together into a bland, coagulating stew, the kind of bourgeois shadows ripe for a Michael Haneke style dissection. The only characters exhibiting authentic behaviors are a pair of farm cats who revel in bringing dead animals into the house.

Reviewed on February 18th at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival (76th edition) – Main Competition. 116 mins.

★½/☆☆☆☆☆