Poppitz (2002)

Gerry Schartl is a very successful car salesman who can even talk people into buying the most appalling models. Not entirely selflessly, he steers the occasional sale Bertram’s way; Bertram is the junior boss. Immediately after the funeral of the senior boss, who had suffered a heart attack during a meeting, Gerry flies off with his dissatisfied wife Lena and their teenage daughter Patrizia for an all-inclusive holiday on the island of Cosamera. Already at the airport, Gerry notices a few oddities that had been going around the company: at the last meeting with the senior boss, business contacts in Germany were mentioned, and lately the junior boss has been making frequent calls to a certain Mr. “Poppitz.” Since Bertram couldn’t pass on an important message to Gerry at the funeral because there wasn’t enough time, Gerry grows increasingly uneasy and suspects a hostile takeover that could put his job at risk. After arriving in Cosamera, the stress really begins. The holiday resort is sealed off from the outside like a fortress, Gerry’s suitcase has disappeared, the resort is crawling with cockroaches and pushy “Piefke,” and the hotel staff are incompetent at best and rude at worst. The madness is complete when, to top it all off, a certain “Poppitz” turns up among the German holidaymakers—the signs increasingly suggest that this is none other than Ben, an arrogant German with whom Lena is openly flirting. From then on, Gerry wonders what to do about Ben. Does he save him in his imagination from a plastic shark in the swimming pool, or simply watch as Ben is shot with arrows by a drunk holidaymaker and one who is high? In another fantasy, Gerry also tells his wife about Ben and Mr. Poppitz, and Lena orders him to get rid of Ben. None of this leads anywhere, and we see Gerry with his family again on the plane, just setting off for Cosamera. It turns out that everything that happened in Cosamera was merely a set of possible scenarios Gerry had imagined. Many of the passengers’ personality traits were transferred into his imaginary world. Since Gerry had always expected the worst, he now looks forward to the holiday with cautious optimism. However, the name Poppitz keeps bothering him, and he asks aloud who that could be. Only then does his wife reveal that she is Poppitz. She and the junior boss, Bertram, had been having an affair, and so Gerry wouldn’t find out, Bertram always referred to Lena as Mr. Poppitz on the phone. But since Lena declares her commitment to her husband Gerry and their daughter, he forgives her, and the family flies off together on their well-deserved holiday.