Maria Mafiosi (2017)

Maria Moosandl, a police officer in the quiet town of Landsberg am Lech, is heavily pregnant and about to go on maternity leave. She and the father of her child, Rocco, a chef at the local family-run pizzeria Il Paradiso, want to build a life together in Italy—but he cannot bring himself to tell his parents, Silvio and Marcella, or his sister Rita about their secret affair. Maria’s colleagues, her father Jürgen, the police chief of Landsberg, and his new, inquisitive wife Irmi also have no idea who the father of Maria’s child might be. When Rocco finally finds the courage to tell family patriarch Silvio about his relationship with Maria, Silvio has already made a decision for him: his only son and heir to the family business is to marry Donatella, the daughter of mafia boss Buri. Silvio runs drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations for Buri, and sees the marriage as a way to reaffirm his loyalty and ties to his boss, even in faraway Bavaria. Meanwhile, Silvio has another, quite different problem: the body of drug courier Valentino Fantuzzi is still hanging from the ceiling in the pantry at Il Paradiso and needs to be disposed of as soon as possible. He assigns the task to Rocco, but while his cold-blooded sister Rita would love to follow in their father’s footsteps, the ambitious chef is overwhelmed by his father’s shady dealings and, in desperation, makes a half-hearted attempt to dispose of the body in a local cesspit. It is Maria who eventually pulls the dead stranger out of the pit and begins searching for the killer. Through Uscha, the frustrated mayor’s wife, who had an affair with the victim, she discovers his identity. But it is her own father who puts obstacles in her way: thanks to some compromising information, Jürgen owes Silvio not only his tremendous career advancement but also his family’s prosperity. At Silvio’s insistence, he does his utmost to cover up incriminating traces that might lead to the Pacelli family. On top of that, Maria discovers that Rocco has already been promised in marriage to an Italian woman he has never met, and sees her dream of a future together shattered. When she confronts him, Rocco admits that Fantuzzi had to die because he wanted to “shoot up” the Pacellis. Fantuzzi wanted revenge because a tip Silvio gave to the police chief—Maria’s father—had landed all his men in Palermo behind bars. Rocco says he was forced to cooperate “for the sake of the family,” and that he has to marry Donatella, the mafia boss’s daughter, or he—and perhaps Maria too—will be shot. But Maria knows how to handle things: on the day of the planned wedding, while Rocco is being forced to the altar at gunpoint by his stubborn father, the police officer manages to plant cocaine on the arriving Donatella during a routine check and promptly sends her back to Italy, threatening her with legal consequences. Outside Silvio’s pizzeria, Maria intercepts a suspect and confiscates a mortadella stuffed with cocaine that he was planning to take away. At her mother’s grave, Maria tells her very understanding father that Rocco is the father of her child and that she is leaving with him, because they both want to get away from his mafia family. But shortly afterward, when she goes to collect Rocco for their trip, Fantuzzi’s vengeful brother takes her hostage. Rocco shoots the hostage-taker, almost by chance. As they dispose of his body in a concrete foundation, Maria takes charge and earns the utmost respect of her future father-in-law. Her future mother-in-law had already been won over when she learned that Maria would give her the longed-for grandchild. The effort of disposing of the body brings on premature labor, so Rocco hastily sets off with her, leaving his father stuck in the hardening concrete. They do not make it to the clinic in time, and their daughter Felizia is born in the sunflower field where her parents used to meet in secret. In the end, the Moosandls and the Pacellis are best friends, Maria is a cook and her stepmother is a waitress at the pizzeria, and ever since her mother-in-law replaced Silvio as head of the family, there have been no more problems with the Fantuzzis in Sicily ... while little Felizia is being initiated into the drug and money-laundering business by her aunt, under the watchful eye of her unsuspecting mother.