The Calling Game

A little girl calls random strangers on the phone, stating she's in the hospital with leukemia. Her parents are not there right now, she says, and she wants to hear a story. She's sick and she's afraid and there's a monster under her bed. But the caller is not really a little girl. She's a desperately unhappy woman in her 30's, and this is her way of making contact with people. Irm works in a laundry and cares for her dying mother at home. Her mother has always made it clear that she favored Irm's sister Margit, who died at age nine of leukemia. Irm seems to have retreated into a make-believe world where people love and pity her because she's sick. She is incapable of connecting with real people, the colleagues and neighbors who try to get her to come out of her shell. That is, until one of her targeted callers gets up close and personal. Irm has been calling Sina pretending she's a child. Sina is also emotionally needy, having just lost her husband. She latches onto Irm, refusing to be brushed off, and soon Irm finds herself in a relationship where she's not in control. (In German with English subtitles) – BB