Above Us Only Sky 2011

In Cologne, Martha Sabel [Sandra Hüller] and Paul Sabel [Felix Knopp] live a contented life together: she teaches at a school, and he is studying medicine at the university, having handed in his thesis to Professor Gellendorf and secured a job in Marseille. While she packs up to join him there, he heads ahead on the road, eager to start their next chapter.

Shortly after, the police reach out to Martha with devastating news: Paul has been found dead in his car in Marseille, and the verdict is suicide. Disbelieving the report, she leaves increasingly frantic messages on his cellphone, clinging to any strand of connection. Then they deliver his personal effects, minus the phone, and she must organize a funeral for the repatriated body.

At this point she realizes she cannot reach his family or friends because she has never met any of them, and the life Paul led outside their relationship remains a mystery. The only name she recognizes is Professor Gellendorf, so she calls on him. He says he has not seen Paul for at least four years and has not seen any thesis. Nobody else at the university can recall seeing Paul.

She begins searching for contemporaries who might remember him and approaches a history lecturer called Alexander Runge [Georg Friedrich]. He physically reminds her of Paul, and, after persuading him back to her flat, she gets into bed and invites him to join her. He suggests another day might be better, so she asks him to dinner and the two become lovers.

He is completely unaware that she has just lost her husband, and she never asks about his life (he has an affectionate girlfriend who is badly hurt by losing him). One day, when they are in her flat, the phone rings and the name on the screen is Paul. It is someone in Marseille calling to say they have found his phone. Realising some of the truth, Alexander leaves her, and she begins grieving for Paul.

In a postscript, they have gotten together again, moved to Marseille, and Martha looks pregnant.