Südstadt (2017)

Anne and Martin Lehmann have been married for 20 years. In recent years, however, the childless couple have grown increasingly distant from one another: Anne, a social worker, is having an affair with her colleague Wolf and secretly planning a divorce, while Martin, a longtime research associate at the university, hides from her the fact that he has been unemployed for some time after being fired. Bored with his job and looking for a fresh start, he had been fired. When, over dinner with their neighbors, he tells Anne that he is no longer employed and has run up debts as a result, she is confronted with mounting fears about their financial security and growing mistrust, and seeks advice from her father-in-law, Eberhard. During a conversation that is supposed to clear things up, matters finally come to a head: When Martin confronts Anne about her relationship with Wolf, she leaves him and their shared apartment. Saskia and Kai Fröhlich live on the floor above the Lehmanns with their young daughter, Polly. When Saskia, a once-successful marketing expert, decides to escape her long-standing life as a housewife and mother and return to full-time work, her husband is forced to take on a greater share of their daughter’s upbringing—at the expense of his demanding job as a TV journalist. While Saskia thrives professionally in her new role at a recruitment agency, Kai comes under increasing pressure as he tries to balance parenting and his career. When he botches a live report from Frankfurt am Main because he is short on time, they argue. Saskia, who has just found out she is pregnant for the second time, feels cornered and decides to have an abortion without even telling Kai. Emergency doctor Eva Simon, who lives in the penthouse, wants to do things differently after a series of short-lived affairs and take her relationship with her new partner, Thomas Maiwald, slowly. He has just separated from his wife, Karen, after a marital crisis; she has stayed behind with their daughter, Greta, in their suburban home. Despite her reservations, Eva persuades him to move in with her. When an impromptu meeting turns physical after Greta provokes them, Eva suspects that Karen is turning people in Thomas’s circle against her, and confronts her. Karen tells Eva a very different version of the separation from the one Thomas gave her, prompting doubts. When Eva indirectly confronts Thomas about it, he retreats and asks Karen to forgive him—but Karen does not want to rekindle their marriage. Eva, who learns by phone about yet another provocation by Greta without Thomas’s knowledge, feels compelled to take him back in for the time being.