Am Ende siegt die Liebe (2000)

Nineteen-year-old Lilli Linke causes an accident while drunk, in which a cyclist is killed. Her mother, Anna, claims that she was the one driving the car and is sentenced to two years in prison. When Anna is released after two years, much has changed. Lilli has moved from the village of Frankental to Hamburg and built a career as a model, giving up her work toward a career as a fashion illustrator. Anna’s best friend Max lives in the same building as Lilli and has looked after her for the past two years. Lilli is now living her own life. Her manager has invented a new past for her, claiming to the press that Lilli is an orphan and a descendant of an old aristocratic family. Photographer Tom Grosse is assigned to document Lilli’s life in photographs for a feature story. When Anna turns up at Lilli’s door, several things in Lilli’s life change. Lilli believes she can never repay her mother’s sacrifice and lets Anna move in with her. At the same time, she struggles with being treated like a child again, especially since Anna soon takes over the entire apartment and interferes in Lilli’s career, putting it at risk. Anna soon finds work as a saleswoman at Hamburg’s fish market and finds someone she can look after in Nicki, a street girl. When Anna prevents Lilli’s marriage to the influential publisher Rainer Maria Jüppner without being asked, she destroys Lilli’s modeling career. None of his publications runs campaigns featuring Lilli anymore, and her publisher Frank drops her. At the same time, articles appear branding Lilli as the daughter of a fish seller and therefore an impostor. Apart from Max, Tom is the only one who stands by Lilli during this time. Anna and Lilli have fallen out, and Anna has moved to St. Georg. With Max’s help, the two women gradually find their way back to each other. Anna and Lilli take a holiday together on the North Sea, and Lilli opens Anna’s eyes to the fact that Max loves her and always has. Max, too, encouraged by Tom, who loves Lilli, has found the courage to confess his love to Anna. Tom and Max drive to the women on the North Sea. Lilli confesses her past to Tom and finally finds the courage to turn herself in to the police. Her mother will be exonerated, and although Lilli will stand trial, she is not expected to receive a prison sentence. She now wants to study design. Max and Anna become a couple and fulfill a dream: they open a fish stall on the North Sea.