Klara Sonntag - Kleine Fische, große Fische (2021)

Everyone deserves a second chance - there is no doubt about that for the experienced probation officer Klara Sonntag. On the arduous path to the prescribed improvement, nobody can fool her so easily. Who, if not her, could get the insolent bankruptcy fraudster Merle Scheffler on course? That's what judge Thomas Aschenbach thinks, who has had an affair with Klara for 15 years and knows her stubbornness like no one else. He gives her the care of the snooty ex-millionaire who continues her luxury life with brazen tricks. Klara first gains respect in her resolute way. She soon learns that Merle has even cheated her former workforce out of social security contributions. Now the probation officer really wants to know - and puts the velvet gloves aside completely. Klara shows her caring streak with 80-year-old Rudi, who has to relearn freedom after half a century in jail. To her astonishment, Rudi's life story points to her own childhood, which she spent in homes and with foster parents. When old wounds tear open on her, Klara's previously irrefutable credo begins to falter: whether everyone really deserves a second chance, suddenly she no longer seems so sure.