Der Blender (2011)

Theo Freund is a con artist and pickpocket. Disguised as a blind man, he bumps into a businessman on Königsallee in Düsseldorf and steals his wallet and mobile phone, while his dog steals the businessman’s briefcase. Meanwhile, Justin and Karl rob a bank, forcing an employee named Dennis to hand over cash in a backpack. Flo waits outside the bank in the getaway car. Theo happens to pass the bank while fleeing from the police and promptly hijacks the getaway car, which the three bank robbers have already loaded with their loot. The three are then forced to flee on foot from the arriving police, while Theo manages to get away in the car. During the drive, Theo gets a call from his brother Wolfgang, a lawyer and aspiring judge, who reminds him that Wolfgang is due to represent him in court that day in a pickpocketing case. Theo drives the stolen car to the courthouse and is acquitted thanks to Wolfgang’s successful defense. Theo then offers to give his brother a ride in the car to celebrate. Theo has barely stopped at a restaurant to pull another con and swindle two crates of wine and a ham when the police notice the car, which is parked in a no-stopping zone. Since Wolfgang is inside the car, with the backpack full of loot on the back seat, he is arrested. Theo slips away through the restaurant’s back exit. Wolfgang calls his brother from jail and tells him that he must not miss his upcoming examination to become a judge. Theo promises to clear up the circumstances of the bank robbery, thereby exonerating Wolfgang, and get him out of jail in time for his exam. Theo disguises himself as a Turkish electrician named Özdal to sneak into a Düsseldorf police station and get hold of the file on the bank robbery, having learned from the news that the backpack contained very little money. This makes Theo suspicious, and he suspects that one of the police officers has secretly helped himself to the loot. While at the police station, Theo meets the investigating officer, Anne Sanders, who is waiting for her new colleague, Cornelia Borowsky, to join the team from Borken. However, Cornelia has called in sick for the next two weeks. Theo therefore decides to impersonate Cornelia Borowsky and use this to gain access to the information he needs. At first, he succeeds, despite officer Gerald eyeing his former acquaintance suspiciously. In the end, however, Gerald’s old feelings for Borowsky outweigh his doubts. Theo, too, finds that his feelings for Anne are increasingly getting in his way. When he learns that Anne developed a weakness for Cuban men during her last vacation in Cuba, he poses as her new Cuban neighbor, Raul, and rings her doorbell one evening. He spends the evening with her at a nightclub and then walks her home. But there he has a mishap: his dark complexion washes off, forcing him to flee the date in a hurry. The next day, when the real Cornelia Borowsky shows up at the station, Theo disguises himself as a paramedic, gives her knockout drops, and hides her in a filing cabinet. Once that problem is out of the way, he remembers that he has to take his brother’s examination to become a judge in his place. He disguises himself as Wolfgang Freund and goes to the courthouse, where, instead of answering the questions put to him, he delivers a fiery speech, urging the judges to take his personal views into account rather than his legal knowledge when making their decision. Immediately after the speech, he flees the room to avoid further questions. That evening, still dressed as Cornelia Borowsky, he visits Anne’s home again. Shortly afterward, the real Cornelia Borowsky arrives, and Theo’s disguise is exposed. Justin and Karl also show up and manage to take Cornelia, Anne, and Theo hostage. They drive the three of them to the local canning factory, where they had previously had their accomplice Flo, who died in a tragic accident, ground up in a large mixer and packed into cans. Anne and Theo end up in that very mixer. But before it can kill them, the arriving officers switch it off and arrest the bank robbers. Anne also leads Theo to the station in handcuffs. However, Theo manages to avoid a prison sentence. Instead, because of his talent for disguises, he is offered a job working undercover for the police. Finally, Anne surprises Theo with two plane tickets and invites him on a vacation to Cuba.