Mehmet Ali Salman

Christmas – usually not the favourite holiday of the atheist Wanda, a surgeon and feminist mother of teenage Nina. And most certainly not in times of a pandemic.

On December 24, in the middle of the supposedly quietest time of the year, anything is possible! And this is exactly what the episodic film "Schrille Nacht" tells in seven short stories.

Two men who do not know each other: Ertan, a 35-year-old ex-convict who is trying to make amends for his past actions, and Mikail, a teenager drug dealer and aspiring musician. However, both will have to face the same reality.

Ambitious doctor Clemens Hoffmann wants to take some time out before his next career move and fulfill his long-cherished dream of sailing around the world on a boat for a year. Shortly before his departure, an accident thwarts his plans.

Diller and Kessel, two hardened Hamburg investigators, learn that their "old buddy" Mohammed is planning to rob a bank with his buddies. Kessel is a customer there, of all places. Kessel is divorced because of previous drug problems, but has resolved to win Claire and the children back and has therefore been clean for months. Despite Kessel's warning to the branch manager, the gangsters carry out their plan and take a hostage who happens to be there: Kessel's daughter Ruby, who suffers from epilepsy.

For a TV documentary, the two unemployed friends Benny and Marko pretend to be petty criminals with immigrant background until the coin flips and reality turns against them.

After many successful years, Hans loses his job overnight - and with it the stability and meaning in his life. Undecided what he wants to do with himself and his future, he drives through Vienna and ends up in the "Südpol", a pub on the other side of the city.