Silberdisteln (1998)

Everything could be quite pleasant at St. Bartholomew’s nursing home—if only head nurse Linprun didn’t constantly bully the residents. When a sprightly elderly woman dies unexpectedly, Rudolf, his buddy Alfons, and their friend Margarethe assume that the hated nurse Linprun must have poisoned her. When the police find no evidence and Margarethe fails in her attempt to secretly obtain some, the “Silver Thistles” hatch a plan: Rudolf, who believes he is incurably ill, is willing to sacrifice himself so they can hold Linprun responsible for his death. First, however, they have to prepare everything down to the last detail, and Rudolf works on making the nurse extremely angry with him. That way, he has valuable witnesses who can confirm that Linprun attacked him in the dining room. That night, they intend to carry out their plan and give Rudolf a poison that takes some time to work. Rudolf lures Linprun into his room, where he bites the nurse’s hand, prompting Linprun to hit him and storm out of the room in a rage. The next day, the police begin investigating Linprun in earnest. The bite wound on his hand is only one piece of evidence; money from Rudolf’s room is also found in Linprun’s apartment. The investigators have no way of knowing that Margarethe and Alfons had previously hidden the money at Linprun’s place. In short, the nurse is arrested, and everything seems to have gone perfectly. However, the man who had lent Rudolf the money suddenly turns up, exposing the whole hoax. Linprun is released, and since Margarethe is considered mentally incompetent, she is allowed to stay at the nursing home. There, the nurse gets his own back on Margarethe for what she did, giving her a fatal injection as he says: “Funny, isn’t it, that you of all people figured me out? When you’re crazy—even officially.”