Damaged Lemons

Deutschland 2024
00:67:00
WP 2025-10-24, 59. Internationale Hofer Filmtage

Direction: Naëmi Ada
Production Company: Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin
Cast: Naomi Kelechi Odhiambo – Mavi, João Kreth d’Orey – Roya, Binta Sophie Camara – Nalin, Daniel Hernandez – Khalil, Chris Scott – Jakob
Script: Naëmi Ada, Sarah Miro Fischer
Camera: Leyla Hoppe, Malcolm Saïdou
Editing: Jin Ju Lee, Raffaello Lupperger, Celine Jünger
Producer: Janna Fodor, Bocar Thiam, Noam Rapaport, Utku Erdogan
Sound: Jonathan Dönges
SFX: Achim Bornhoeft
Music: Francesco Lo Giudice

Social worker Mavi feels torn between her own life, which is characterised by mental overload, and her physically chronically ill sister Nalin, for whom she feels responsible. While a lot of space is made for her sister’s physical illness, Mavi’s mental state is overlooked. In a moment of overwhelm, she tries to break away from her sister and in the heat of the moment locks her in the kitchen. On the run from home, she meets Roya in a bar. Roya appears to be free of any responsibilities and is on the way to a centre outside of town, where people come together in search of the questions that move them in life. Mavi follows Roya, moving further and further away from the person she usually has to be. But the further she moves away from her life, the more she is drawn into dissociative states of memories and her own perception. Her perception that is increasingly affected by stress and a guilty conscience. Slowly she loses touch with time and space. Until Nalin and Mavi’s partner Khalil find her and take her to a clinic. In an environment that forces her to introspect, she breaks down until her psychological distress is recognised and she begins to find ways of dealing with her dissociative states.