22 Bahnen Review: A Faithful, Familiar Bestseller Adaptation

Is 22 Bahnen good?

It’s a solidly acted, decently reviewed drama rather than a standout one — critics land somewhere in the middle, appreciating the performances more than the storytelling choices. Luna Wedler carries the film as Tilda, a math student quietly holding her family together, and critics have singled out both her and Laura Tonke, who plays the addicted mother with real complexity instead of leaning on cliché. Where the film loses points is structural: the flashbacks meant to deepen the family’s history feel inserted rather than earned, and the swimming pool as a metaphor for controlled, orderly escape is a device that’s been used before in prestige European drama.

What is 22 Bahnen about?

Tilda balances a math thesis, a supermarket job, and raising her ten-year-old sister Ida while managing their mother’s alcoholism, with laps at the local pool as her only real outlet. When a professor offers her a doctoral position that would mean moving to Berlin, the film’s central tension crystallizes: does she take the opportunity, or stay and keep protecting Ida the way she always has? It’s adapted directly from Caroline Wahl’s bestselling debut novel, and director Mia Maariel Meyer keeps the film close to the book’s structure and tone.

Should you watch 22 Bahnen?

If you loved the novel or want a well-performed, emotionally direct German family drama, yes — just temper expectations that it will surprise you. The film is at its best in quiet two-hander scenes between the sisters, and Zoë Baier’s performance as young Ida holds up well against her more experienced co-stars. Audiences have actually responded a touch more warmly than critics here, which tracks: this is a film built to move people who connect with the material emotionally, not one designed to impress on technical or structural grounds.

How does it compare to other book-to-film sister dramas?

22 Bahnen sits in familiar company with other faithful European bestseller adaptations that prioritize fidelity to the source text over cinematic reinvention. It doesn’t take the same risks with form that a film like Sound of Falling takes with its fractured, multi-generational structure — instead it tells its story in a straight, accessible line, trusting its actors to supply the depth the script sometimes skips past. That makes it a gentler, more conventional watch, and one that’s likely to satisfy fans of the book more than critics looking for something new.