Lina Braake (1975)

Many people may not know that apartment leases in Germany are a lifetime affair, which is one reason apartments there are so difficult to find. Thus, it comes as something of a surprise to 82 year-old Lina Braake (Lina Carstens) when her bank kicks her out of the apartment she has been living in and forces her into a retirement home which, like its U.S. counterparts, treats its residents as if they were infants. There she meets a retired bank manager who delights in the idea of getting even with the men who wronged her. Together, they cook up a scheme so tight that the bank can do nothing when it figures out what has been going on. The title of the film, translated into English, tells the whole story in a nutshell: Lina Braake -- the Bank's Interests Can't Be the Interests Lina Braake Has. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi