Nicht tot zu kriegen (2020)

Simone Mankus is a film and show diva who made her career in the 1960s and 1970s. She lived life to the fullest and hardly missed out on anything: she had two husbands, affairs, drug binges and tabloid scandals, spent many years in show business, and made numerous films. A few years ago, the once-celebrated star faded from public view. With the support of her son Jonas, whom she has never told who his father is, she plans her comeback. At precisely this moment, she is threatened by a stalker. She therefore hires Hans Fallner’s security company, which assigns her Hans’s stepbrother, former police officer Robert Fallner, as her bodyguard. Robert had left the police force after shooting the 18-year-old dealer Marouf in what he believed was self-defense, and has been in crisis ever since. Robert thinks Simone’s case is ridiculous, a view his girlfriend, police officer Jaqueline, reproaches him for. Simone’s excesses and escapades do not make things any easier for him. He hopes to find clues to the stalker’s identity in Simone’s past, but she proves uncooperative. She lives in her memories and past successes, is moody, and drinks. However, she does not want to remember her countless affairs, any one of which could have involved the stalker. Along with her heavily indebted son Jonas, Simones’s last and violent lover, Jimmy Lanz, is also a suspect. There are also a number of fans and disappointed lovers whom Simone cannot—or will not—remember, despite Fallner’s questions. Robert tries to set a trap for the stalker, but the plan fails and the stalker gets away. His stepbrother Hans reproaches him for it. As Simone’s concert draws nearer, the threat from the stalker grows more acute. Simone, however, refuses to cancel her performance. While keeping Jimmy Lanz under surveillance, Fallner meets Walter Maurer, the owner of a local establishment Simone often frequented in the 1980s. From Walter’s mother Emmi, Robert learns that Horst Bacher, from the trade inspection office, is probably Jonas’s father. Simone was supposed to take care of Horst back then so that he would continue turning a blind eye during inspections of the establishment. In return, Willy Maurer, Walter’s father, had recommended Simone to a director for one of his films. Simone tells Robert that she never revealed her son’s father’s identity because she feared Jonas might blackmail Bacher, who was married. Bacher himself is now in a care home for people with dementia. After another attack on Simone, Robert takes her in at his apartment, much to his girlfriend Jaqueline’s displeasure. Because the threats follow different patterns, Robert suspects there are two different stalkers. During the concert, Simone is attacked onstage. Robert manages to overpower the culprit—the establishment’s caretaker. He wanted to force Simone to stop performing because of her age. Soon afterward, another attempted attack on Simone at her house is thwarted: Jimmy Lanz admits that Jonas and his wife Natascha had put him up to frightening Simone into moving out of the house, which they planned to sell afterward. While Robert takes Jimmy away, Simone confronts her son. Some time later, Simone says on a television show that Jonas is the best thing she has ever done. Asked about the romantic relationship with her bodyguard that the media have been reporting, she says she cannot remember.