High Society (2017)

Industrialist’s daughter Anabel von Schlacht leads the life of a spoiled high-society brat. Her everyday routine consists mainly of luxury, shopping, and partying. When the daily newspaper reveals that, after her birth, the young Berliner was switched at the clinic by two rather irresponsible nurses, she is confronted not only with the truth but also with a fall in social standing: her mother, Carmen Schlonz, is a cashier who lives with two other children and an illegal lodger in one of Berlin’s deprived neighborhoods. Carmen’s adopted daughter Aura, meanwhile, bored with her hedonistic but penniless life in a high-rise apartment block, sees her chance to live in the lap of luxury and promptly moves into the villa of her birth family. Her mother, Trixi von Schlacht, is overjoyed by the new arrival, but because of the situation and her own insensitive, snobbish nature, she only manages to provoke Anabel. After a falling-out at a charity gala hosted by Trixi, Anabel decides to leave her old life behind and move in with Carmen. Carmen, a single mother, her two half-siblings Rosa and Siddharta, and their lodger Gernot welcome Anabel warmly, but at first her new surroundings remain strange to her. She finds support in Yann, a young police officer who launches a search after her car is stolen and who, to top it all off, turns out to be Aura’s boyfriend. But when a demonstration outside a fur shop where Trixi and Aura are shopping turns violent, and Anabel, in disguise, throws paint-filled balloons at the two women, Yann is forced to take Anabel and the two passionate activists, Carmen and Gernot, to the police station. Anabel, who has unsuccessfully tried to find work and is facing a hefty fine because of her actions, is forced to ask her friends for help, but after her fall in social standing they want nothing more to do with her. Her crush, successful venture capitalist Ben Schwarz, then invites Anabel, in her hour of need, to a job interview at his company. At Schwarz Enterprise she eventually gets a job as a cleaner in Ben’s home, where she comes across his BDSM toys while tidying up. In the meantime, Yann manages to find her car. Anabel grows increasingly fond of him, and during a drive through Berlin and a meal afterward, where they run into Aura, the two grow closer. Meanwhile, Trixi realizes that she cannot make up for the lost time with her biological daughter Aura and that she is missing Anabel more and more. During an unannounced visit to the Schlonz family, she tries to buy Anabel’s affection with money. But Anabel has since become independent of her former mother and sends her away. Aura has meanwhile rekindled things with Yann, whose behavior drives Anabel into Ben’s arms. He tries to seduce her over a luxurious dinner, but leaves her handcuffed to his bed in the middle of foreplay when he has to leave on business. Humiliated, Anabel seeks help from Yann, who has by now definitively broken up with Aura after an argument with her, and he frees her. When her bedridden adoptive father comes down with pneumonia, Anabel reconciles with the von Schlachts at his bedside. At the end of the film, Anabel and Yann become a couple.