Der Pfarrer und das Mädchen (2015)

The Catholic priest Thomas Seelow spent many years working as a missionary in Ghana. He returns to Berlin, where he takes over the run-down St. Paulus parish in the Wedding district. The previous priest had left the ministry in order to get married. Father Thomas grew up in this district and spent his youth there. When Father Thomas arrives at the church late on the evening of his first day, he finds it locked. However, he manages to open the door with a piece of wire. Inside, he finds 15-year-old Tessa Nowak, who has been secretly spending the night there. Father Thomas and the girl get into an argument; she seems to be hiding something. Tessa is unhappy and desperate. She is pregnant unintentionally, and a pregnancy test has confirmed her fears. Tessa is the daughter of Agnieszka Nowak, a Polish woman who makes ends meet by working several jobs, including as a housekeeper at the St. Joseph parish. The next day, Thomas is reunited with his old friend Max Polke. Max Polke, the “godfather of the neighborhood,” has since become a wealthy man as the owner of a cleaning and security company; he also acts as a financial sponsor for social causes in disadvantaged areas. He is married to Nora, who once studied art history for three semesters and whom he chauvinistically calls his “doll.” He wants to help his friend Father Thomas financially by providing funds for the church’s renovation. Thomas and Polke share a secret from their youth and a fateful connection. Once, while drunk, Thomas ran over a young girl at an intersection; at the time, his best buddy Max Polke took the blame and went to prison in his place. Thomas continues to be tormented by his guilt. He wants forgiveness from the dead girl’s father. However, the man has since developed Alzheimer’s and can no longer remember his daughter at all. Father Thomas eventually manages to build a relationship of trust with Tessa. She also tells him that she is pregnant. Her mother, a Catholic, rejects abortion for religious reasons. Thomas’s childhood friend Doreen, an attractive hairdresser still in her prime who herself had an abortion at 17, advises her to have one instead. As a Catholic priest, Thomas naturally opposes abortion, but he has to come to terms with a whole new development. Tessa’s pregnancy is the result of rape: she was raped by Max Polke’s son Robin at a party at the “Raw” youth club, attended by the teenagers Ben and Mo as well. Thomas encourages Tessa to face the situation and report the rapist, even though he is the son of his old friend Max Polke. Max Polke then ends his friendship with Father Thomas and also withdraws the funds he had already promised for the church’s renovation. In her desperation, Tessa eventually wants to take her own life by jumping from the roof, but Father Thomas manages to stop her from killing herself. Tessa decides to go to the police and report Robin. Max Polke demands that Father Thomas prevent the report and threatens to destroy his professional career. Ben, who is secretly in love with Tessa, offers to raise the child together with her. But Tessa decides that it is still too early for her to have a child. Father Thomas is able to rally the parishioners. Through donations and their own work, they renovate the church themselves. This prevents the property from being sold. Even Mr. Opitz, the archbishop’s official responsible for property administration, is eventually forced to recognize this. Father Thomas has reached the end of his journey.