Strong and dramatic sequel to "Into the Darkness" which follows the Skov family from 1943 to the end of WWII. The growing opposition to the occupation and the increased brutality of the Germans have fatal consequences for the family.

Out of the Darkness

Volkmar Stenzel is a branch manager as it stands: correct, responsible and always there for customers. But guys like the 57-year-old are just as little needed in the global financial world as branches in rural areas. When the Chinese company, which has just swallowed his Frankfurt-based bank, sends him the young careerist Tutz to process "his" branch, Stenzel feels worthless and "has fallen off the train". He protests against injustice and finally shows what his wife Barbara has been demanding of him for a long time: courage. With money from the dead bank account of a deceased person, he gives the urgently needed transition loan to the ailing daycare center in which his deceased daughter went. His white lie that it is a question of financing from a special secret fund soon attracts other interested parties. Intoxicated by his actions, Stenzel granted further "special loans" - also to the young street musician Jana, who reminded him of his daughter - and thus ensured a surprising upswing in the sleepy town. Unfortunately, there is a catch: If not all loans have been repaid by the time the branch closes on Christmas Eve, Stenzel comes to the devil's kitchen.

Stenzels Bescherung

At a Babelsberg studio, two German actors try to outdo each other with their Hollywood experiences. At a chic Düsseldorf café, two expatriate French women envy each other’s respective life. At a construction site somewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia, a foreman informs the supervising archaeologist that he as ordered the concrete without her approval. In a trendy Café in Ehrenfeld, Cologne, a recently departed meets a friend of his ex to obtain a box with things he’d left behind. A Dutch business consultant desperately tries to sell his inflated services to a Bulgarian arms contractor at Brussels Airport. On a rooftop in the Belgian Eifel, the owner and the future heir of a family workshop quietly discuss the recent passing of the family’s grandfather.