Die göttliche Sophie (2009)

Pastor Steffensen has himself transferred from Hamburg to Fischbach because he hopes it will be easier to observe the vow of celibacy there. In Fischbach, he meets Sophie Strohmayr, an atheist widow who later helps him with the household. Sophie’s friend Inge Schüssler moves into the rectory with her. Inge has fallen out with her husband after an affair with Sophie’s son. Johann, Inge’s husband, is so hurt by his wife’s infidelity that he abruptly closes his local dairy—which provides jobs for many of Fischbach’s residents—and disappears to his hunting cabin. The dairy has also been doing increasingly poorly lately. When Sophie asks Inge to sign an order for milk and yogurt cups, since Sissi Pelzer, who works in Schüssler’s office, is not authorized to do so, Inge refuses, saying that she couldn’t care less about the damn dairy. Sophie doesn’t give up and tries to make her friend see the consequences of her selfish actions. Inge reflects on what Sophie has said and offers to help. First, she signs the order. Sophie has been thinking about how to get more business for the dairy, and the pastor’s question about the sixth commandment—which she couldn’t answer—comes back to her. Her idea is to print one of the Ten Commandments on each kind of yogurt cup. She thinks that if these cups are on lots of people’s breakfast tables in future, people might start talking about the commandments again and use them as a way to connect. And that’s exactly what happens: business takes off better than ever. Sophie tells Steffensen that nothing has ever given her as much joy as working with him and for him. He replies that he has never met an unchristian woman with so much love for her neighbor. When church authorities suggest that Steffensen fire Sophie because she is not a church member, he is undeterred and stands by her. He remembers Sophie’s words: that he should ask her sometime why she left the Church. He recalls his answer: “Well, why do you think? Because they’d rather spend their money somewhere else, like everyone else. It’s because of people like you that it rains inside German churches.” And he remembers her reply: after her son was born, when she was all alone, she had asked God for help, but then God had also given her child’s father cancer, and she had cared for him in Fischbach until he died. The Schüsslers also find their way back to each other, and the church in Fischbach is packed on Sundays. Then the “Yogurt Campaign” even attracts the attention of the cardinal, who makes a completely unexpected visit to Fischbach. To Sophie’s and the pastor’s great delight, Sophie’s cat Dorle—whom Steffensen hit with his car when he first arrived—is sitting outside the rectory door one morning. Five little kittens have their mother back.