Die Firma dankt (2017)

The company where department head Adam Krusenstern has worked for nearly 20 years has been taken over by international investors. All of Adam’s colleagues have been laid off, and he alone has been invited to a weekend seminar at the company’s headquarters, a large, isolated castle hotel. Adam wants to do everything he can to keep his job. At the same time, he has to arrange somewhere for his son to stay, since the boy was supposed to be with him that weekend. Because Adam’s mother appears to be suffering from dementia, arranging care for his son proves difficult. But what happens at the seminar has little to do with the kind of weekend seminar Adam knows. John and Ella, representatives of the new owners, tell Adam to relax and treat the weekend like a vacation. They also accuse him of not getting involved. The assistant, Mayumi, keeps giving Adam instructions, but doesn’t tell him everything, which sometimes leaves him looking bad. The young Sandor, whom Adam takes for an intern, is also taking part in the weekend. He has little in common with Adam, is boorish, and has no manners. Adam feels provoked by him. Adam still wants to prove himself, but he has no idea what he is supposed to do. He tries to fall back on familiar work routines and invites all the participants to a traditional meeting with a flip chart. He makes suggestions as usual, but the other four participants aren’t receptive to them. Only his suggestion of a party finds favor. It turns out that Sandor, a promising and highly sought-after graduate, is already on the company’s board, and that he invited Adam to the weekend only because he liked the surname Krusenstern. Adam realizes that everything he has achieved at the company is irrelevant. After John spikes Adam’s drink at the party and Adam wakes up the next day with only hazy memories, he is fired. Shortly afterward, Adam and Sandor get into a scuffle, which somehow impresses Sandor. He likes Adam’s old-school methods. He fires John and Ella, and Adam gets his job back. But Adam says goodbye and leaves the hotel. He gets into the car and, for the first time, drives his chauffeur himself.