Paternal Leave

Fifteen-year-old Leo has never seen her biological father. She finds the address and travels alone to a town on the coast of northern Italy. He runs a beach business there and has a new family. When Leo arrives at the door neither of them knows what to do; they are complete strangers. Leo carries both longing and anger, and carrying both at once is hard. This is Alissa Jung's first feature. The narrative does not build a story of reconciliation; its main material is two people saying the wrong thing constantly while trying to know each other. The empty coastal town in winter carries that distance visually. Juli Grabenhenrich plays Leo and Luca Marinelli plays the father. The film screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2025. Who it's for: Viewers who like European family drama, films told from an adolescent point of view, and quiet narratives. Who it's not for: The pace is slow and the plot is thin. The uncertainty of the ending may not satisfy every viewer.