Für meine Kinder tu' ich alles (2009)

After her husband’s fatal accident, Marie Rensberg, who had previously been well-off, is suddenly faced with a mountain of debt along with her three children. The life insurance company refuses to pay, intending to classify the claim as suicide because of the circumstances of the accident. Marie’s husband, Charles, had also entered into speculative deals, leaving the company on the verge of insolvency. Marie’s father-in-law, Horst, exploits the impending financial ruin to fight for custody of his two granddaughters and drive his despised daughter-in-law and her son from a previous relationship out of the family. He will help Marie financially only if she gives him custody of the girls. After the funeral, the family has to move out of their house and into a small social-housing apartment in a high-rise estate. Marie learns that her neighbors Rana, Sonja, and Valeska work as prostitutes or as a stripper. When she realizes that her job at a supermarket will not be enough to keep her from falling into poverty, Marie sees her only chance in working as an escort, with Sonja’s help. At last, this job gives her enough money to feed her children and keep the family together without her father-in-law’s support. He does everything he can to cause his daughter-in-law financial problems, and hires a private detective when he realizes Marie is managing to meet all her financial obligations. Meanwhile, Marie’s new nighttime activities with Sonja, dressed for the job, attract the attention of Valeska’s pimp, Ernie, who has been trying for some time to make Rana and Sonja work for him too. Only his respect for Mammut, who also lives in the building and looks out for the women, stops him from forcing them with physical violence. It is only after he lands Mammut in the hospital for several days by drugging a drink that he can put his plan into action. During their first job for him, he watches them and spots the private detective who has been tracking Marie and secretly taking photos of her as potential clients approach her. He beats the detective up and forces him to reveal who hired him. Meanwhile, Marie’s son is growing closer to his single, attractive sports teacher, Tom, and Marie gets to know him too. She asks him to find out who is behind the company that has brought both her husband and now her into such trouble. The next time Tom visits her at home, Ernie has brutally beaten Valeska, is knocking Sonja to the ground, and is threatening Marie. When Tom intervenes, Ernie knocks him unconscious and is about to stab him as he lies helpless on the floor. Valeska then shoots Ernie. Tom shows Marie printouts containing evidence that the company they are investigating is secretly controlled by a single man, unaware that this is her father-in-law. When she confronts him with the printouts, he reveals, in front of his wife, that his doctor told him years ago that he was infertile. His son must therefore have been fathered by one of his wife’s lovers, which is why he had rejected him for a long time and accepted only his daughters as his granddaughters. His anger at his wife’s deception was so great that he deliberately drove Charles into ruin.