Männertreu (2014)

Georg Sahl is in his mid-50s and, in Frankfurt am Main, is the publisher and editor of the Frankfurter Nachrichten, a national newspaper with a liberal-conservative outlook. He is known as a man of letters, and has just been awarded the Ludwig Börne Prize in the Kaisersaal of Frankfurt’s Römer. When the subject comes up at an editorial meeting of a Christian-conservative minister-president who has fathered a child out of wedlock, Georg does not want the story covered in his paper. Although Georg has been happily married to his wife Franziska, a lawyer, for 35 years, he regularly cheats on her. At present, he is having an affair with Nina, a trainee journalist in her mid-20s. Georg has shown Nina that he loves her, and she feels the same way. One day, she goes to Franziska’s law office, intending to tell her the truth. But Franziska responds with apparent coolness and composure, telling her that Georg truly loves only himself, and that while he needs women like her “again and again,” he will need only his wife “always.” Frankfurt’s mayor suggests that Sahl run for the office of Federal President, making it clear that the Chancellor has nominated him because he is “electable by everyone,” which is necessary given the narrow majority in the Federal Convention. Georg’s son Thomas and his wife Judith have a daughter named Paula, and they run an agency together. Thomas has witnessed his father’s numerous affairs, and after Georg makes a phone call completely without embarrassment during a meeting with his mistress, showing no intention of apologizing or changing, Thomas has had enough. He can no longer bear to watch his father cheat on his mother, either. He guesses his father’s computer password and, from Georg’s user account, sends Nina an email addressing her as Judith and thanking her for the previous night. In Georg’s office, Nina finds a note saying he has an appointment in Hamburg that evening and will appear on Helen Martin’s talk show. She travels to Hamburg to confront him. After the show, he goes to the presenter’s dressing room and has sex with her. Nina is already waiting for him at the hotel and shows him the email. He cannot explain it, but has no desire to discuss it with her and wants to end things. At first they grow close again and begin undressing, but then Nina realizes that Georg had sex with someone else just before her. Angry and in tears, she runs out of the hotel and across the street, where she is hit by a car. When Georg sees Nina’s motionless body in the street from his hotel window, he calls his wife in the middle of the night and asks her to come and help him. When she arrives, Franziska takes Nina’s handbag and key, then visits Nina, who is in a coma, at the hospital, where she also secretly steals her smartphone. Using the key, Franziska breaks into Nina’s apartment, destroys photographs, and takes her laptop and other evidence of her relationship with Georg. The press nevertheless discovers that Georg and Nina were at the same hotel and that there was a connection between them. The mayor knew that Georg was no saint, but accuses him of having slept with an employee who was dependent on him at his publishing house. He is now assigned Loebmann, a public-relations specialist, as his spokesperson. Franziska has meanwhile gone through Nina’s private messages on the phone and found the email addressed to Judith. Since that is also the name of their son’s wife, Franziska now suspects her. She goes to see Judith and asks her outright whether she slept with her husband. Surprised by Franziska’s manner, Judith admits that she did in fact have a sexual relationship with Georg some time ago. Franziska is beginning to realize that tolerating her husband’s affairs was a mistake. Thomas notices that his wife is behaving strangely, and when she says she is unexpectedly going to the print shop, he secretly follows her and sees Judith meeting Georg in a park. At a formal family dinner, Thomas can no longer stand his family’s feigned harmony and hypocrisy. The situation escalates, and Judith finally admits to her affair with Georg, too. During a live broadcast, Georg calls Helen Martin and reveals that he had sex with her as well. The next day, he announces to the press that he is withdrawing his candidacy for Federal President and resigning as editor of his newspaper. However, he says he has nothing to reproach himself for and regards the discussion of his infidelity as nothing more than a “frenzy of outrage.” Meanwhile, Thomas leaves his wife for an indefinite period, and Nina wakes from her coma in the hospital. Georg and Franziska continue their marriage. In the garden, Georg encounters a young gardener who has taken over looking after the Sahls’ plants from the old gardener. Instead of lobelia, she now plants pheasant’s-eye flowers in the garden.