Toni Erdmann

Director: Maren Ade, Germany, 162 min., 2016
*This film has been classified as Category III and only persons aged 18 or above shall be admitted to any exhibition of this film.

Award:
Cannes Film Festival 2016 (FIPRESCI Prize
 
Winfried doesn’t see much of his working daughter Ines. The suddenly student-less music teacher decides to surprise her with a visit after the death of his old dog. It’s an awkward move because serious career woman Ines is working on an important project as a corporate strategist in Bucharest. The geographical change doesn’t help the two to see eye to eye any better.

Practical joker Winfried loves to annoy his daughter with corny pranks. What’s worse are his little jabs at her routine lifestyle of long meetings, hotel bars and performance reports. Father and daughter reach an impasse, and Winfried agrees to return home to Germany. Enter dazzling "Toni Erdmann": Winfried’s smooth-talking alter ego. Disguised in a tacky suit, weird wig and even weirder fake teeth, Toni barges into Ines’ professional life, claiming to be her CEO’s life coach.

Wilder and bolder than Winfried, Toni doesn’t hold back, and Ines meets the challenge. The harder they push, the closer they become. In all the madness, Ines begins to understand that her eccentric father might deserve some place in her life after all.