Stenzels Bescherung (2019)

Volkmar Stenzel is travelling through Scandinavia in a camper van with his wife, Barbara, and seems to be in good spirits. After Barbara dozes off, she suddenly hears police sirens, and then everything happens very quickly. Her husband is ordered to get out and is then ushered in handcuffs to a police car. Six weeks earlier: 57-year-old Volkmar Stenzel is the branch manager of the town bank in Gutenow, a town of 12,000 residents, and perfectly fits the stereotype of a typical bank employee: conscientious, responsible, and always ready to listen to customers. When the branch he manages is swallowed up by a Singaporean corporation and the young careerist Tutz is sent from Frankfurt to wind up “his” branch, Stenzel feels utterly powerless, but anger also wells up inside him. For the first time, he stands up for himself and shows the courage his wife Barbara, a physiotherapist, had repeatedly demanded of him in the past. He takes money from the dormant accounts of deceased people who have no heirs and first grants the run-down local daycare centre a much-needed bridging loan. His late daughter also attended this daycare centre. He explains that the financing comes from a secret fund called “Bank Helps the Neighborhood” and that the bank does not want anyone talking about it. But soon more people come forward, hoping to get a loan from the fund. Buoyed by his success, Stenzel also gives Mahmoud Umu’s brother-in-law Celik, who runs a small auto repair shop, a loan for a new car lift. Mahmoud runs the “Merhaba” restaurant opposite the bank branch, where Stenzel often spends his lunch break. Mahmoud also brings in more local business owners: Mrs. Dollinger, who wants to reopen the town café at Christmas; Mr. Stemmler from the carpentry shop, who needs 8,000 euros; and baker David Richter, who needs a new dough mixer. And then there is Mrs. Schiller, who wants to set up a tailoring business. Stenzel is not quite sure how to respond, but eventually approves the loans, insisting emphatically that every amount must be repaid by December 20 at the latest. Extensions are out of the question. In the end, he also offers a loan to Jana, a young street musician who strongly reminds him of his late daughter Lisa, so she can fulfil her dream of recording music in a studio. When people begin to suspect that master baker Richter is a gambler and has probably blown the 5,000 euros he borrowed, they are at a loss about what to do. When Stenzel asks Jana to repay the 1,500 euros he lent her, she evades the question, saying she has had expenses. His wife had been pressuring him to buy a camper for 42,000 euros. There is 62,000 euros missing from the dormant accounts, and Tutz is determined to inspect them. When Stenzel refuses to give him the password, Tutz obtains it directly from the Frankfurt head office. When Stenzel finds out, he decides to set off immediately in the camper he has just bought, taking the northern trip his wife had planned. And that is what he does. Back to the arrest: Stenzel apologises to his wife and tells her he will have to remain in pre-trial detention for the time being. Barbara then tells him she will make the trip anyway: they had promised Lisa they would go to see the Northern Lights, but they never got around to it. So now she will go alone. A total of 51,000 euros is still outstanding from the bridging loans. The camper might fetch 30,000, Tutz tells his superior in Frankfurt, but that would still leave 21,000 euros missing. The people Stenzel helped gather at the “Merhaba.” Jana, now very successful, shows up too and delivers a passionate speech. She gives a concert and asks the many people who have turned up for donations. To everyone’s surprise, Mrs. Zichmund contributes the missing 18,372 euros, even though the previous day she had opposed any help. Jana’s speech seems to have struck a chord. Stenzel is released from pre-trial detention. As he looks admiringly at the decorated Christmas tree in the market square, Barbara suddenly appears beside him. They should go to the North Cape together, she says. Everyone who helped get Stenzel released is gathered at Mahmoud’s restaurant, and it looks as though the dough mixer was bought after all, because Stenzel has the honour of cutting into the freshly baked Christmas stollen.