Meine Mutter und plötzlich auch mein Vater (2021)

Antonia Janssen has by now overcome her grief over her breakup with Rufus and is looking forward to a new future for her country inn. She has hired Sebastian Holtmann, a young, dynamic chef with fresh ideas, to run the kitchen. The newly opened “Kupferkännchen” is therefore different in many ways from Toni’s old vision. This breath of fresh air has an effect on her, too. Instead of devoting herself day and night, as she used to, to the country inn—which is now rented out as a simple pub—she also takes some time for herself. So she and her friend Maris head to Cologne for a shopping trip. She has no idea that, here in the big city, she will happen to run into her biological father. Only moments earlier, she had a heated argument with her mother about the man who fathered her, someone Toni never had the chance to know, since he abandoned her mother more than thirty years ago. An equally old photograph falls from Toni’s bag and lands at the feet of her father, Kurt, who is begging for alms in the city. Kurt then strikes up a conversation with Toni without telling her that he is the man in the photograph. In the end, Toni takes the obviously homeless man home with her. But when he suddenly appears at the door, Toni’s mother is almost struck down by the shock. Only then does Toni learn that Kurt is her father. While her mother wants to get rid of Kurt at once, Toni sees things very differently. She insists that he stay so she can at least get to know him a little now. Over the following days, the three of them manage to talk and discuss the reasons that led to the breakup. It emerges that in the years after the separation, Kurt had continually tried to stay in touch with his daughter, but his mother-in-law secretly prevented this, intercepting all the letters and gifts intended for Toni. Kurt is offered the chance to stay and work in the family business, but in the end he prefers to go his own way again. Everything is ready for the opening of the “Kupferkännchen”: Sebastian has brought two servers from his old workplace, and Marc, Rufus’s junior chef, has joined them because he likes it better here in the Eifel than in the big city. Sebastian points out only that the new restaurant’s name is not a very happy choice, and after some disagreement Toni comes to the same conclusion. From now on, it is to be called “Toni’s.” Toni’s ex-boyfriend HaJü sees the new chef as a rival who could jeopardize his plan to win Toni’s heart back. So he tries to establish the situation right away and simply introduces Toni as his fiancée. Since he works as a handyman around the house and is near her every day, he leaves no opportunity unused to woo Toni. In the end, just as in the old days, he simply ends up in her bed, and for the first time in years Toni lets him stay there.