IM AUGE DES BETRACHTERS ist ein Echtzeitfilm, der das Familientreffen zum 65. Geburtstag von Karl Krämer erzählt.
Karl Krämer wohnt seit Jahren zusammen mit seiner Frau Maria Krämer in einem Haus am Land. Maria war früher eine höchst begabte Sängerin, die am Höhepunkt ihrer Karriere krankheitsbedingt ihre Stimme verlor und seither zu keiner Kommunikation mehr fähig war.
Die beiden haben drei Kinder, die den Kontakt zu ihren Eltern vernachlässigen. Doch zum Geburtstag ihres Vaters stehen sie unerwartet vor der Tür. Was folgt, sind oberflächlich, kleinlich, fast lächerlich wirkende Konflikte und Streitereien, die aber zunehmend einen tiefsitzenden Schmerz offenbaren. Aus Maria Krämers Augen erleben wir verstörende, ergreifende aber auch komische Einblicke in die unterschiedlichen Perspektiven einer Familie, die aufgrund von festgefahrenen Mechanismen, von den Geschehnissen ihrer Vergangenheit eingeholt wird.

Karl Krämer is a middle class retired person who has been living with his wife Maria in the countryside of northern Germany for many years. Maria formally was a well-known singer, who, in the peak of her career, fell seriously ill and then unluckily lost her voice. From this moment she has been in a desolate state unable to communicate and forced to battle her inner demons... But for her husband she has remained the glamorous person of former times. He denies to realise the fact, that the success of his wife and the love of their partnership has vanished by the time. Besides life has changed to increasing isolation... Together, Karl and Maria have three grown up children, who are quite different in their character and their way of living. Each of them try to get over their difficult childhood in their own way and through the course of the years they have grown distant to their parents and perhaps to each other. Yet, on the 65th birthday of their father, they all come back to visit him unexpectedly. This family gathering is of course supposed to be a simple birthday reunion, but then it transforms into a series of disturbing, poignant and sometimes comic-like events. The emerging problems of this situation expose the family drowning into unresolved conflicts of the past. Each family member tries to find a solution in different interactions - with a deep desire to heal each other. How can they find the way back to sanity when the own point of view differs from each other in so many aspects...?