Die Kirche bleibt im Dorf (2012)

The two villages of Oberrieslingen and Unterrieslingen, which are “at loggerheads,” share a cemetery in Unterrieslingen and a church in Oberrieslingen. This arrangement has always caused trouble between the villages, especially between the Häberle and Rossbauer families. At present, a pothole on the boundary between the two villages is fueling the dispute further. Neither side considers itself responsible for repairing it. The quarrel escalates when Grandma Häberle from Oberrieslingen has an accident near the pothole and dies. When she is to be buried in the cemetery in Unterrieslingen, the villagers have dug the grave for her right next to the compost heap, of all places, stirring up fresh resentment. While the funeral service is taking place in Oberrieslingen, two strangers suddenly appear, interested in the church. Howard Jones, a foreign multimillionaire, offers several million for the building. He supposedly wants to give the church to his mother for Christmas. The town council immediately starts planning what it will do with all the money. When the people of Unterrieslingen get wind of the offer, they are outraged and invoke an old curse. Elisabeth Rossbauer threatens to dig up the Oberrieslingen residents buried in Unterrieslingen and take them back. And they would start with Grandma Häberle. To prevent the church from being sold, they promptly make the statue of Mary on the altar bleed from the nose. But this “miracle of blood” only drives up the purchase price in the end. Maria Häberle runs a small inn with her two sisters, Christine and Klara, where the two strangers are also staying. Christine overhears the strangers talking and learns that the church may be worth ten times the negotiated price because a mysterious manuscript is hidden inside it. However, her father, Gottfried Häberle, who is also the village mayor, has just found out that Peter Rossbauer is asking for his youngest daughter Klara’s hand in marriage. He is therefore no longer receptive to anything else. Anger and outrage over this cross-village love affair reach a peak with the “arrival” of Grandma Anni’s coffin. As threatened, Mrs. Rossbauer has dug it up and let it slide down the vineyard all the way to Oberrieslingen. Despite these new events, Elisabeth Rossbauer, the local leader of Unterrieslingen, unexpectedly relents and signs the sales contract. While Howard Jones and his companion Dieter Osterloh begin measuring the church for transport to America, Maria Häberle wants to place Grandma Anni’s coffin in the church crypt. She has agreed with her family that Grandma had always wanted to go on a trip, after all. So perhaps she will finally get to do that now, and they would also have a place for the coffin. Jones and Osterloh help the Häberle sisters carry the coffin into the crypt, where they discover a sarcophagus and suspect that it contains the hidden treasure. They believe that a golden chalice and the first version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet are hidden there. Gottfried Häberle drives his tractor into the pothole, causing it to tip over and trap the old man underneath. Klara finds him there and calls her sisters for help. Together they try to lift the tractor, but they cannot manage it. Elisabeth Rossbauer, who happens to be passing by with her son Karl, overcomes a long struggle of conscience, joins in, and helps. Karl now says things cannot go on like this between their two villages, or one day someone will end up dead. The Häberle sisters agree. Christine finally gets a chance to tell them about the conversation she overheard, revealing that Jones is “ripping everyone off” with the church purchase. They hatch a plan. While Christine distracts Jones with her feminine charms, Karl Rossbauer and Maria Häberle look around in the church and find in old writings an account that, back in 1588, a couple in love, much like Romeo and Juliet, chose to die because a union between Oberrieslingen and Unterrieslingen was impossible. However, the chalice they sought, from which the two had taken their fatal drink, is no longer in the church but among Grandma Anni’s belongings. They have no idea, though, where the Romeo and Juliet manuscript Jones mentioned might be hidden. So the Häberles and Rossbauers agree that their church is worth more to them than what Jones has paid them for it. They plan to take back their church, which is already ready to be transported, in one piece, for loading. First, they fill in the pothole and discover that it was not difficult at all. Maria incapacitates Jones’s companion with knockout drops, while Christine lures Jones to her and has herself locked in with him. The two villages then work together, unobserved, using all their tractors to move the church to another location and cover it with straw bales. Maria and Christine find the sought-after manuscript hidden inside the baptismal angel. The next morning, Jones and Osterloh search in vain for the building. Indignant, they pack their things and prepare to leave. Christine, who has fallen in love with Jones, gives him the old manuscript and says, “You can have this, but the church stays in the village.” Maria had found a stack of love letters among Grandma Anni’s belongings, revealing a lively correspondence between her and Grandpa Rossbauer. Elisabeth Rossbauer and Gottfried Häberle then realize that they actually like each other, and Maria Häberle also takes a liking to Karl Rossbauer. By the end, Jones has also realized how much Christine means to him, and he returns with the manuscript. Klara and Peter get married in the church, which has now found a new, neutral location.