Zwei verlorene Schafe (2016)

Rebecca Fitz, nicknamed “Fitzi,” has sacrificed a great deal to become an actress. That makes it all the harder for her to accept that her career may have failed. She is broke and can no longer pay her rent. Eventually, she has to go to the employment office, but Fitzi is unwilling to retrain for an ordinary office job. So she accepts a lucrative offer from an old school friend, Bishop Gerlach. She had originally only wanted to ask him for help with a possible role in which she would play a pastor. Gerlach’s son Thaddäus, a Protestant pastor, is largely devoid of talent, partly because he does not see his job as a calling; he took it on only to fulfill his father’s wishes. To keep the congregation from falling asleep during his important Reformation Day sermon, Fitzi is given three weeks to coach him. Thaddäus, however, is not at all pleased to receive this kind of tutoring and makes that very clear to Fitzi. He really needs to work on his rhetoric and body language, which Fitzi has a hard time getting him to understand. To break through his tough exterior, she even uses Bible quotations and theological wisdom she has just learned for her stage role, but his resistance remains. Nevertheless, she gives Thaddäus plenty of useful advice, which he accepts as awkwardly as he delivers his sermons. One day, to make him a little more “relaxed,” she gets him to steal something so he can experience “what adrenaline feels like.” When he takes something from a kiosk without paying, the furious owner chases him and runs out in front of a car. Thaddäus immediately blames Fitzi, because she had put the packet of condoms in his hand. To keep the situation from escalating further, she defends him to Isabel, the kiosk owner’s daughter, explaining that it was all a chain of unfortunate circumstances and that her student, as a pastor, would never steal. Since Stanew is unable to work at the kiosk because of the accident, Rebecca and Thaddäus help out in the shop, where Thaddäus begins to fall in love with Isabel. Fitzi immediately notices the positive changes taking place in Thaddäus and tries to make use of them in her coaching. She invites Isabel to the Reformation service, which means Thaddäus will have to make a real effort if he wants to impress not only his congregation but Isabel as well. Thanks to Fitzi’s practical tips, Thaddäus has by now managed to arrange a date with Isabel and is generally making good progress. Meanwhile, nothing is going right for Fitzi. Her son refuses to have contact with her because she always put her career first, and he has felt neglected since childhood. At the theater, she cannot be paid for the role she was promised, and with her bank account empty, paying the rent she owes is out of the question. As a result, her landlady throws her out, and Fitzi sees no other option but to seek shelter with Thaddäus and his housekeeper. The day before Thaddäus’s big sermon, he has to support a young member of the congregation who is dying. The experience deepens his doubts about whether he chose the right profession. So at the Reformation service, he cannot deliver the sermon he prepared; instead, he stops it and decides to be honest at last with himself and his congregation. He tells them exactly how he feels. Although he has felt closeness, warmth, and love from his congregation in recent weeks, he is still full of doubts. He therefore wants to take a sabbatical year and decide after the break whether to remain a pastor and return to his congregation, if they still want him. Fitzi is convinced that he has made the right decision. As for Fitzi, her current stage role becomes a great success, earning her recognition not only in the theater world but from her son as well.