MARCH begins on the last night in the lives of three young men from a small community in Tyrol. Two of them had families here, while the third moved to the village from Bozen (Northern Italy) in order to attend university in nearby Innsbruck; all three were students. They became friends and were fond of sports in their spare time: just a few days ago they were seen playing handball together. But now it is night, and a final cigarette is extinguished before they use duct tape and a hosepipe to prepare the car which one young man has borrowed from his father. Then they get inside, start the engine, and inhale.
Three months later. Irene`s gaze falls on the door of her dead son`s room. She will surprise her younger son in there one night, when he has crept into his elder brother`s bed to sleep. On another day she will wearily allow her mother-in-law to cook lunch for her, and in the family grocery store she will encounter Karin, the distant mother of the second young man. She will make a cake for this woman - but she will not find any words to express the tragedy they have suffered together.
Only when she enters into conversation with Hannes in the forest one day, near the place where the young men killed themselves - the third young man rented a room in his house - will she begin to search for answers... which are not to be found. For the three friends left no signs, indicated no reasons and wrote no suicide notes when they departed from a life which seemed secure and yet proved fragile. Even here, in a village where everybody knows everybody else and life appears tangible, comprehensible, within one`s grasp.
As we peer through the camera, during the course of the subsequent year, we are close to the relatives, and yet we too lack any insight into these events. What motivated the three deceased to do what they did is simply beyond our understanding. But everything in the village resonates with this act. Allocating blame is no use: submitting to fate seems the only response. All that can be said is "that you can leave", in the words of Markus, one of the fathers. What remains for us are attempts to make such statements: glimpses, half pictures of a now helpless everyday life which was once so reliable.
The task is to live this everyday life, despite the abyss lurking constantly in the background. While one person tries to escape from keepsakes, another clutches them tight. The youngsters seem to find it easier to cope: the pain subsides as time passes - or at least that`s the way it looks. The death car is repaired and driven again. An old school exercise book appears, visitations from the past - and finally the older brother comes to visit his mother. A birthday cake is baked. The sister of one young man decides to go to university. Tears and final embraces, along with non-embraces.