Schnitzel de Luxe (2019)

After Günther Kuballa and Wolfgang Krettek learn that their favorite schnitzel joint is about to close, they ask if they can take it over. They are offered the chance to buy it for €10,000. To raise the money, Wolfgang’s wife Karin takes the two men to a party hosted at his villa by her wealthy ex-lover, Sonne. Günther asks Sonne for a loan, but Sonne refuses, saying he never lends money to friends. Instead, he gives the two men—who have been living on Hartz IV benefits for nine years—the opportunity to earn the money by dog-sitting for him. So Günther and Wolfgang look after the dogs at the villa on their own, but in the process they break a valuable sculpture. To avoid having to pay compensation, they make it look like an accident: Wolfgang supposedly fell through the stair railing while trying to rescue the dogs and destroyed the statue in the fall. They also want Sonne to pay Wolfgang the €10,000 they need as compensation for his injury. Since Sonne has planned a spa weekend for himself, Karin, and Wolfgang, Wolfgang—who supposedly cannot come because of his injury—lets Sonne and Karin go alone (knowing that Sonne is still in love with Karin), but secretly follows them. After Karin notices Wolfgang and Günther, who has also arrived by then, the two men have to tell Sonne the truth. Unexpectedly, Sonne gives them the €10,000 anyway. But Karin is disappointed in Wolfgang for lying to her and leaves him—temporarily. Back home, Günther and Wolfgang meet Kosta, an exceedingly friendly and helpful Greek tradesman who lived on Hartz IV until recently starting his own business. He was supposed to repair the stair railing at Sonne’s and feels partly responsible for Wolfgang’s “accident,” so he wanted to apologize to him. During a snack at the schnitzel joint, it emerges that Kosta can barely afford one portion of fries a day. On the drive to Sonne’s, Kosta says that because the railing was not repaired, he probably won’t get any more jobs, and his daughters will have to stay in Greece. After meeting Kosta, Wolfgang and Günther feel guilty and try to avoid him, but keep running into him. Eventually, they use Wolfgang’s daughter Jessie to send Kosta the €10,000, disguised as prize money from a crossword competition. To get another €10,000, Günther and Wolfgang decide to take advantage of Sonne’s passion for art. Wolfgang had recently been “prescribed” a creative course by the Jobcenter, which gives him the idea of making a sculpture and offering it to Sonne as an exclusive work of art. With help from Wolfgang’s daughter Jessie, they pull it off: she delivers the sculpture—which, oddly enough, looks a lot like Karin—to Sonne, passing it off as the work of a South American artist, and gets €18,000 for it. However, they have to give part of the money to the real art dealer, who had recognized the scam but did not want to expose it. But that was not actually necessary, since Sonne had seen through the whole charade on his own, but wanted the figure anyway because he liked it. In the end, Wolfgang and Günther own the schnitzel joint and bread the first schnitzel for Karin, who has since arrived. Then Frau Gottschalk appears. She has been responsible for Günther and Wolfgang at the employment office for years, and announces that she is retiring. Günther and Wolfgang then bread a schnitzel for her.