Mein Schwiegervater, der Stinkstiefel (2015)

In a village buried deep in snow in the Alps, Joe runs a small farm with his grumpy father, Hans. Joe has a hard time of it: nothing he does is ever good enough for his father, who finds fault with everything. Then one day, the Thai woman Lamai unexpectedly arrives at the farm, and Joe tells his father that he married her while on holiday in Phuket. The two men have a furious row. Hans does not want the young woman on the farm and demands that his son send the “whore” back to Thailand. But Joe is happy at last to have a kind person by his side, and promptly throws his father out. After all, he inherited the farm from his mother, and his father does not even have the right to live there. Furious, the old man moves into the camper van while Lamai moves into the house. There, however, she discovers that no woman has had a hand in the place for years, and that everything is run-down, untidy, and dirty. At first, though, Lamai enjoys being reunited with Joe, which does not do him any good. After their first night together in Germany, Joe dies suddenly of cardiac causes. Hans immediately blames Lamai. He grows even angrier when he learns that Joe left the entire farm to her. Fortunately for Lamai, Joe had not been on holiday alone, but had gone with his friend Otti, who is now the only person on her side and tries to help her cope with the unfamiliar surroundings and the strange, unwelcoming people. Otti, the village priest, has some influence over the villagers and tries to soften Hans’s attitude, but to no avail. Lamai, on the other hand, confidently stands up to her father-in-law, who continues trying by every means to drive her off the farm. In the process, Hans has to realize that his age imposes certain limits on him. When he throws his back out while mucking out the stable, Lamai offers to help, but at first he flatly refuses. Only after spending the whole day lying on the floor, unable to move, does he agree, and Lamai manages to ease his pain with practiced hands. As soon as he can move again, Wiebke, Joe’s first wife, appears and explains that she has filed an objection to the divorce and intends to assert her claim to the farm. The property would then be sold, and Hans would have to move into a nursing home. This makes him reconsider a little, and he accepts Lamai as the “lesser evil.” But this change of heart does not last long, because Lamai’s son, Sua, and her mother, Preecha, soon arrive at the farm as well. Hans now has three strangers around him, and gradually tries to come to terms with them. Lamai’s son reminds him of Joe when Joe was the boy’s age. Since Sua is always seeking the old man’s company, they spend a lot of time together, and Hans repairs the old Mercury Cougar that Joe had left sitting unused in the garage for years. He gradually gets along better with the two women as well. Together, they have put the house in order and distilled schnapps from the stored fruit, which Lamai tries to sell in the village. On her way back, she is pursued by village youths who intend to rape her. Fortunately, Hans, who is just about to go hunting in the woods, intervenes and drives the boys away. When Lamai thanks Hans that evening, he learns in their conversation that Joe had also been thinking especially of him when he persuaded Lamai to come to Germany. He thought it would do his father good, too. Meanwhile, Joe’s ex-wife Wiebke tries every means to get a share of the inheritance. After her objection to the divorce fails, she reports Lamai for having tricked her way into the marriage. Lamai is arrested and led away in front of the assembled congregation. This prompts the priest to deliver a very direct, accusatory sermon to the people, denouncing their hypocrisy. He then gives up his priesthood. After the authorities send Lamai and her family back to Thailand, Hans can no longer bear to stay alone on the farm. He sells it and follows Lamai. With the money from her share of the inheritance, Lamai can live comfortably there, and Hans, too, can spend his old age without a care in “paradise.”