Alles was recht ist (2008)

The experienced judge Lena Kalbach works at the regional court in Frankfurt, the largest city in Hesse. She is a woman of moral principles—and when she sees them being violated, she is not always so scrupulous about her legal duties. This is what happens when the crafty lawyer Teddy Klein manages to get a client acquitted using dubious methods. Outraged, Lena refuses to deliver the verdict. As punishment, the rebellious judge is transferred from the regional court to a local court. Her immediate transfer takes her, of all places, to her old hometown of Fulda in eastern Hesse. For Lena, this is both a professional and social demotion: she left her hometown 30 years ago because she found it too confining. Her adult daughter Nike lives there and works as a prosecutor at the local court, alongside her husband Johannes and their two children, Clara and Emanuel. While her son-in-law Johannes and the children are pleased, Nike is less than thrilled by her mother’s unexpected arrival—especially since Lena moves back into the family home with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. The former ’68 radical Lena and her traditional, strict daughter could hardly be more different in character. When Lena also interferes in the upbringing of the teenager Clara, tensions between the two very different women rise further. Old wounds reopen, and unresolved family conflicts come back to light. But Lena also causes an unusual stir at the local court in Fulda. While her colleagues wonder how long the big-city lawyer will last, Lena grows increasingly interested in the case assigned to her. The respected and wealthy newspaper publisher Dr. Jobst Grübel is to be declared legally incompetent by his children on the grounds of mental incapacity—and the lawyer representing them is Lena’s “favorite enemy,” Teddy Klein, to whom she owes her disciplinary transfer. There is no question that Lena will investigate this case with her characteristic independence.