Da wo die Liebe wohnt (2002)

Hansi Sandgruber marries his childhood sweetheart, Regina. At the wedding, Hansi tells the guests that he plans to open an inn by the wildlife park, just as his mother, Irmi, had always wanted. This earns him the anger of his father-in-law, Gernot, who until then had run the village’s only inn. He fears a loss of business. Meanwhile, Hansi’s sister Kathl is barely able to speak: at the wedding ceremony, she saw Father Sixtus again. She had an affair with him in 1988. When 17-year-old Kathl became pregnant, Sixtus disappeared, and because his belongings were found by the river, people assumed he had drowned. Kathl’s daughter, Sonja, is now 16 and does not know who her father is. Kathl meets Sixtus shortly afterward and talks to him. He admits that he tried to take his own life back then, but the current washed him ashore. Sixtus eventually went to Africa, where he worked as a missionary. Now he has returned to meet his daughter. While Hansi, Regina, and the others are already planning the inn’s first season, Kathl spends the summer with Sonja at the high-alpine pasture, where Sixtus is also staying in secret. At the opening of the inn, Hansi and his older brother Franz have another argument, and Franz storms off in a rage. He goes to Viktoria, Hansi’s arch-enemy, who wants to make him deputy manager of her amusement park, Mountain Castle. She hopes she can use him against Hansi. Viktoria also has the mayor under her thumb: he has lost a lot of money at the casino and is heavily indebted to her for that reason as well. She pressures him over his debts. Alternatively, she would be satisfied if he could secure for her a piece of land belonging to Hansi, with two valuable springs on it. Hansi, however, refuses to sell. Another of Viktoria’s attempts involves her own daughter: Selina has just returned from the United States and starts working as a waitress at Hansi’s new inn. The young woman tries to seduce him. Although her advances fail several times, over time she makes Regina jealous and nearly causes the couple to split up. In the end, it becomes clear that Selina really feels lonely, especially since her mother treats her badly. When Selina tries to take her own life, Hansi saves her, and Regina is able to forgive her. Regina and Hansi reconcile, and Viktoria has to realize that, for now, she has lost. But Kathl and Sonja have to say goodbye to Sixtus. When rumors spread around the village that the man believed dead had returned, anger began to stir. Even Hansi wanted nothing more to do with Sixtus. Sixtus, for his part, has realized that he is needed in Africa and leaves Kathl and his daughter, who at least now finally knows who her father is.