Kleine Schwester (2004)

Soon after receiving her big break in the multiple-award-winning German blockbuster Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), Maria Simon starred in the made-for-TV movie Kleine Schwester (2004), which combines elements of a family drama with a thriller subplot. Maria plays Katrin Rubakow, an ambitious police officer who works with her lover Ulf (Benno Fürmann) at the German-Polish border. Dark clouds appear on the horizon when she accidentally stumbles upon her wayward half-sister Romy (Esther Zimmering). Not only does the younger sibling remind her of their troubled past that Katrin successfully left behind, she also ends up seducing Ulf. Things get even worse when it turns out that Romy’s lover, Schnaubi (André Szymanski), earns his living by illegally smuggling immigrants into Germany.