Global Player - Wo wir sind isch vorne (2013)

The Bogenschütz & Sons company, which has been producing knitting machines for generations, is in financial trouble. Managing director Michael Bogenschütz returns from a trip to China, where he spoke with Chinese investors. He tells his father, senior owner Paul Bogenschütz, that he had been holding talks with customers. The gruff patriarch celebrates his ninetieth birthday surrounded by his children. On the sidelines, Michael’s wife tells his two sisters, who are also involved in the company, that the business is in very bad shape and that Michael has already signed his house over to the bank. Michael is pinning all his hopes on a large order the company is expecting. During a visit from the Chinese delegation, Paul brusquely opposes the Chinese investment and openly criticizes their way of doing business. Michael also gives the visitors, who want to take over the company, a provisional refusal. He tries to get more loans from the local bank manager, who is also his tennis partner, but the manager will only lend him money against collateral. Michael vents his anger over this during their game, bombarding him with tennis balls. His despair over the situation grows. He drinks too much and trades in his Porsche when he learns that the anticipated order has fallen through. Meanwhile, senior Paul also gets nowhere with the banker and therefore transfers his house to the bank. With his caregiver, Agnieschka, he travels to visit his daughters in Cologne and Berlin, hoping to persuade them to do the same. At Marlies’s, who runs several yoga studios, he meets with rejection, leading to a heated verbal confrontation between them. Paul gets drunk in a brothel and has to be brought back by the police. Marianne, by contrast, agrees to give back the house her father once gave her. On this visit, Paul meets her longtime partner. He is an American Jew who lost his grandparents in Auschwitz and therefore wanted nothing to do with the older generation of Germans. Paul explains that although he did believe the propaganda at the time, he was still very young. Since realizing what happened in the concentration camps, he has felt deep shame. At the same time, he gives voice to his bitterness over his wartime experiences and tearfully says he could never forget them. Meanwhile, Michael can no longer pay the company’s wages. The employees complain about the lack of communication. The large order is not placed; instead, the customer moves its production to Bangladesh. Michael’s brother Matthias, who lives in Thailand and prefers an alternative lifestyle, appears unexpectedly. He plans to marry a Thai woman and wants to be bought out of his share in the company so he can invest in a beach bar. However, he accepts that this is not possible in the current situation and would have no objection to selling to the Chinese. Michael eventually travels to Shanghai for further negotiations, accompanied by his sister Marlies. She comes up with the idea of producing textile machines for yoga clothing using ecologically sustainable methods. The Chinese remain interested only in buying the company and impose further conditions, such as withdrawing from the employers’ association and the trade union. The siblings agree to sell, but only in return for a job guarantee for the employees and the family retaining the patent for health textiles. Marlies’s explanation—that, because morning exercise is customary in China and could also be introduced in Germany, the patent would not be needed—causes great amusement among the Chinese delegation. The plan is to continue producing machines using this patent, compete with the Chinese if successful, and bring back the former employees. Senior owner Paul, who has veto power, is told over Skype that the negotiations have resulted in the Chinese investing while the company remains in family hands. Satisfied with this outcome, he closes his eyes for the last time. In the closing scene, two workers explain technical problems to the new Chinese company boss during a tour of the factory in the broadest Swabian dialect, which the interpreter does not understand.