Ein Schnitzel für drei (2010)

Günther Kuballa has been unemployed for months, as has his best friend, Wolfgang Krettek. There is little prospect that their situation will ever improve. Wolfgang is a trained men’s clothing salesman and is doing everything he can to find another job, in any line of work. That is why he keeps taking new retraining courses, though in the end they get him nowhere. Günther is less committed and is constantly at odds with his caseworker at the employment office. He has been an animal keeper all his life and only wants to earn his living at the zoo, working with the seals he loves so much. After the employment office requires him to attend a training course and he drops out, his unemployment benefit is cut as well. In this apparently hopeless situation, Günther encounters his neighbor Hermann, who has dementia and gets on his nerves with his confusion. Even so, when Hermann is one day standing helplessly in the street, unable to find his way home, Günther looks after him. He takes him back to his apartment and, by chance, finds a large sum of cash there—money Hermann has completely forgotten about. Günther sees his opportunity and secretly takes the money. He tells Wolfgang about his find and says he plans to share it with him. Wolfgang has qualms about stealing from the old man. But when he makes sure that Hermann really cannot remember anything about his savings, he too is willing to keep the money. He does think, though, that Hermann should get something from the treasure as well. So they agree to think of the money as a kind of salary, and to do the washing, cleaning, and tidying for their neighbor. The two friends throw themselves into the work and now feel like the rightful owners of the 150,000 euros, spending it freely. Günther first borrows a flashy sports car, since buying one would have made the employment office suspicious. He and Wolfgang treat themselves to the best schnitzel in the Ruhr region and bring a portion to Hermann, too. They haven’t forgotten him and continue to look after him. Günther even takes him to the zoo, but loses sight of him there and only finds him again hours later. Their newfound wealth also brings complications. The first tensions arise when Günther, without asking Wolfgang, spends a large part of the money renovating the zoo’s seal pool, hoping that this will let him work there again. Wolfgang, meanwhile, has trouble explaining to his wife how he was able to take her out to an elegant restaurant as a surprise. The only excuse he can come up with is that he is the bank robber currently terrorizing the city. He enjoys the renewed respect this earns him as a real man in her eyes. He takes the role so far that he even gets Günther to give him a grazing bullet wound, because the media have reported that the bank robber was shot during his most recent robbery. Günther also suspects their neighbor Eva Lorenz of being the bank robber, after finding newspaper clippings about the robbery and a gun in her apartment. Looking after Hermann becomes a problem when Günther actually manages to get his job as an animal keeper back, at least temporarily, and can no longer care for the old man during the day. Wolfgang is fully occupied with his family, so he cannot step in either. This leads to complications, and Hermann has to be taken to hospital as an emergency. The staff are convinced that the old man can no longer be left alone and belongs in a care home. He would need a little money of his own for that, so Günther decides to give Hermann the money that is left. Wolfgang reluctantly comes to agree and admits to his wife that he is not actually a bank robber and that they owe their newfound wealth to their neighbor. Just as they are about to take Hermann’s money to the bank to open an account for him, another robbery takes place. Afraid of losing the money, Günther throws himself at the bank robber and overpowers him. Günther discovers that their neighbor Eva Lorenz is actually a police officer trying to catch the real robber. In gratitude, the two local heroes are presented with a check for 15,000 euros. But that does not stop Günther and Wolfgang from continuing to look after Hermann, who now lives in a care home and receives regular visits from them.