Sebastian, a successful fertility doctor, leads a good if divorced life. He enjoys an open and easy-going relationship with his son, Arthur. At least that is the way he sees it.His cleaning lady, Jana, has quite a different approach to parenting. Sebastian finds Jana to be an overprotective mother. Conversely, Jana shakes her head at how much freedom Sebastian allows his son to have. One night both teenagers go out together, without Jana’s permission. The next morning, Jana panics when she finds out that Arthur and Vera have not returned home from their night out. Attempting to calm her down, Sebastian instead provokes the opposite...
This lightly played out drama shows the lovely little relationship between two very different parents, each losing track of their teenage children in more than one way. Sebastian (excellently portrayed by Wolfram Koch) is so liberal it hurts. Actually, he is so liberal you could call him careless/indifferent/cowardly/disengaged if he wasn't so likeable. Ironically, in his job as an IV specialist, he makes decisions daily over who might be a suitable parent or not. Jana (equally beautifully played by Bettina Stucky) is insecure and over-protective -- and driving Sebastian crazy. Really, the film revolves around the two of them, every minute detail carefully observed, from haggling over the keys to which phone messages to leave.
You could read the film as a German commentary on the Tiger Mum vs. Bringing up Bebe discourse, pondering the monumental task of parenting between hyper-liberalism and lifelong caring and worry. (French) director Sylvie Michel brings up all those nagging questions: Have I done the right thing? Have I done my best? How can I relate to my children while letting them find their way? "Die Feinen Unterschiede" is not coincidentally the German title of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. A social critique of judgement also applies here.
by Jutta Brendemühl, Goethe-Institut Toronto
