Ostfriesisch für Anfänger (2016)

Uwe Hinrichs, who speaks Low German, believes he is the last East Frisian. The house of this loner is seized, and a group of foreigners (“Utländer,” as Hinrichs calls them) are housed there for a German integration seminar. The participants come from various countries and want to settle in Germany, but they have to pass the integration test to do so. Because of Uwe’s intervention, the group leader can no longer run the course, and Uwe Hinrichs is instead forced to lead the seminar. But he teaches them Low German in a barn and has the participants work for him. He befriends Abdullelah, a Muslim from Beirut, after Abdullelah reveals that he is a ship’s engineer and is able to improve Uwe’s passionate hobby of making ships in bottles. When Uwe shows him how to shell shrimp, he learns about Abdullelah’s large family and the skills Abdullelah acquired long ago at shelling North Sea shrimp. But the former seminar leader steps in, takes over the course, and moves it to another location. By now, all the participants speak good Low German, but they fail the German integration test because of it. Acting on a tip, Uwe searches through the legal texts and finds the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. He presents it to the examiner, so the applicants end up passing after all and receive permission to work in Germany. They find Uwe at his wife Elfriede’s grave and buy his house back for him. Uwe and Abdullelah open a successful ship-in-a-bottle business. During the credits, we are shown what professions they have all taken up and how their personal lives continue.