In Ade’s critically acclaimed film, Ines’s father Winfried is equal parts impossibly charming and impossible, a practical joker to her serious personality. In an attempt to get closer to his buttoned-up daughter, Winfried spontaneously visits her on the job in Bucharest, donning fake personas, including that of “Toni Erdmann,” showing up at her work and social engagements, and throwing Ines’s controlled—but unhappy—life off balance. Ade crafts a poignant story of father and daughter with a clear thesis statement: don’t take yourself too seriously.