HERRliche Zeiten (2018)

The wealthy couple Evi Müller-Todt, a garden architect who suffers from anxiety disorders, and Claus Müller-Todt, a cosmetic surgeon specializing in liposuction, live bored in a well-kept villa they bought cheaply at a foreclosure auction. Their neighbor is Mohammed, the son of a sheikh from the Middle East, who constantly throws debauched parties. When their housekeeper quits, Claus, drunk, posts an online ad seeking a new domestic helper under the heading “Slave wanted.” The next day, a collection of curious figures dressed in latex and leather appears at their front door. He apologizes and sends them away, explaining that he worded the ad incorrectly and was looking for an ordinary housekeeper. That evening, however, a normally dressed Bartos turns up and offers to place himself under their authority. He used to manage a hotel that now belongs to the bank, and says he has more debt than he could ever repay in his lifetime. He offers his services in exchange for room and board only, since any money he earns would go to the bank anyway. Bartos serves up magnificent three-course meals and transforms the house into a five-star hotel. He suggests to Evi that they improve security at the property by installing surveillance cameras everywhere. He introduces the Müller-Todts to his attractive wife, Lana, who soon starts working as a masseuse, sauna attendant, and maid. He also brings in a group of Bulgarian migrant workers to fulfill Evi’s long-held dream of having a swimming pool in the garden. Evi thinks it is inhumane that they are to be paid only two euros, but Claus and Bartos talk her into it. When Mohammed wants to throw another extravagant party, he borrows Bartos as an organizer and the Bulgarians as waiters from Claus. For the first time, the two neighbors are invited as well. The party has ancient Rome as its theme, and various members of Mohammed’s security detail, as well as what appear to be prostitutes, are present. Evi is disgusted, while Claus enjoys himself. Mohammed believes he and Claus are cut from the same cloth: they do not care what the world thinks of them. He takes Claus to the S&M studio in the basement of his property, gives him cocaine, and also shows him photos of atrocities he committed during the war. Disturbed by the pictures, Claus returns to the party and looks for his wife. There he runs into Lana, dressed provocatively, and Bartos offers him her sexual services, saying that it is only right for a slave to serve his master. Before Claus can give in, Evi finds him and says she wants to go home. Unable to sleep that night, he goes to Bartos’s small apartment on the property, where Bartos is already waiting for him and offers his wife to him again. Claus has wild sex with her. The next morning, Bartos tells him that one of the Bulgarians has stolen Evi’s watch and that he must not let them get away with it. Claus confronts the culprit in the excavation for the future swimming pool and eventually beats him brutally with an iron bar to earn the respect he needs. When Evi gets home, the Bulgarians are just leaving the property. She thinks Claus has come to his senses and no longer wants to make “slaves” work for him, so she summons Bartos and Lana to tell them they are being let go too. Although this is not what Claus wants, the two leave. The following night, Claus gets a call from Bartos, who says he has “forgotten something in the garden.” When Claus goes to look, he finds the Bulgarian he beat up dead in the excavation pit. He buries him there. Bartos and Lana lure him to their apartment with music, where they lie in wait and reveal who they really are: the villa’s former owners. They blackmail him with videos of the Bulgarian’s murder and burial, as well as his affair with Lana, and demand that he transfer the villa to them by midnight and kill his wife so they can get her inheritance too. Desperate, Claus turns to Mohammed to borrow a gun or one of his bodyguards. But he cannot tell him what he needs them for, and leaves. He calls Bartos and tells him he would rather go to prison than lose his house and kill his wife. Midnight passes, and nothing happens. At breakfast, Mohammed shows up and takes Claus to the basement of his house. There they find Bartos and Lana, bound; Mohammed’s bodyguards intercepted them around midnight on their way to Claus and Evi’s property. Mohammed demands that Claus kill and dismember them with a chainsaw, which Claus eventually does when Mohammed threatens him with a gun. In the final scene, Claus sits in the garden by the now-completed pool, apparently carefree as he celebrates his 50th birthday with many friends, including Mohammed.