Liebling, lass die Hühner frei (2017)

The Teuffel family has the house to themselves: their youngest, Sophie, is away on a school trip, and since the two older children, Lisa and Kai, have already moved out, Steffen and Beate plan to enjoy some peace and quiet in Krummenwalde, Brandenburg. But a minor problem related to puberty means Sophie’s teacher brings her back home that very same day, and the peace is over again. Beate throws herself back into work at the Quelle mineral-water factory. Her fight to save the mineral spring was successful, and she has now been managing director for several years. To her great surprise, the ministry has just informed her that the company is to receive the major Brandenburg Order of Merit for its sustainable work. However, the day the minister plans to visit falls, of all days, on the Teuffels’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and they had actually planned to travel to Rome afterward. Beate would much rather have a lovely celebration with all their friends and family, which now seems very likely to happen. Steffen Teuffel, who is actually a cookbook author, has spent the last few months venturing into a completely new literary field for him. Under the title “Abendbrot – Ost-Ansichten eines Westlers” (“Supper – A Westerner’s Views of the East”), he has published a collection of short stories about all sorts of eccentric people. At first, an online release attracts only very tentative interest, but that changes dramatically after Beate gives it a somewhat manipulative boost with help from their daughter Lisa. Steffen is thrilled that apparently thousands of people are interested in his work and already sees himself as a major media star. For a while, his family takes second place, and he fails to notice that Lisa has come home not only for the family celebration but also because she has worries of her own. She is pregnant and fears for her career, which has only just started to take off. Then their son Kai arrives, adding to the confusion. He had intended to study viticulture, but instead teamed up with a young entrepreneur in Paris and is producing online videos. Beate is annoyed by Kai’s change of career plans, while Steffen takes it in stride: after all, his son needs to find himself first. The Teuffels’ neighbor, Petra Jänicke, who regularly goes Nordic walking with Steffen, manages to get hold of the manuscript for his book. She hides it under her mattress, where her husband finds it and immediately reads from it aloud in the pub in front of everyone. At first, they find the stories amusing, until they realize that Teuffel has immortalized all of them in his stories and that most of them are unflattering. Only then does Petra Jänicke realize that Steffen Teuffel has thoroughly pumped her for information during their Nordic-walking outings. The people of Krummenwalde are outraged and make sure the Teuffels feel it straight away. The reputation they have built over the past few years as an integrated West German family is suddenly gone. Steffen sees only one way out of the mess: he tries to brazen it out. He goes to the village pub and tells the people of Krummenwalde that they should be proud of their stories. Besides, it would be good if they all knew the truth about one another and no one had to pretend anymore. He almost manages to convince them, but in the end he blows it when his old dispute with the mayor flares up again, hardening the divisions even further. As a result, the people of Krummenwalde refuse to attend the ceremonial presentation of the order, and Steffen has to sit down with the mayor once more. They both realize that the book must not be published: according to Steffen’s research, Gerd Jänicke had only won the mayoral election at the time because he had bought votes with money stolen from the Russian mafia. If they learned that from the book, Krummenwalde would no longer be safe. It soon becomes clear that Jänicke was right to be concerned: because of the online publication, the Russians have found out who took their briefcase full of money and demand it back. Everyone understands how serious the situation is. Since Jänicke had spent half the money, Beate Teuffel helps out with the prize money from the Order of Merit, so that in the end everyone can celebrate Beate and Steffen Teuffel’s silver wedding anniversary happily and reconciled.