Unter Dir die Stadt

The bank crisis is still a long way off for the protagonist of The City Below. Roland Cordes is banker of the year. His misery does not stem from financial matters, but from his belly. The cigarette that Cordes surreptitiously shared with Svenja, the wife of one of his employees, awakens fiery sexual yearnings in him. Cordes is used to getting his way. In the affair that ensues, it’s not always clear who exactly is the boss. The extramarital affair threatens to destroy his meticulously constructed life.
That Christoph Hochhäusler originally studied architecture is immediately obvious from The City Below. An important role in the film is reserved for the architecture of the financial centre of Frankfurt: plenty of glass, steel and skyscrapers. Bigwigs look down from their skyscrapers on the ordinary world far below them. The world of art is also prominently featured in the film, not so much to neutralise the harsh world of banking, but more as a cover for dirty deeds.