- Steven, a meek accountant-in-training, is living contentedly with his wife Clara and working for her brothers, managing the books at their junkyard. All of this changes when the belly dancer they hire for Steve's birthday turns out to be Anke, one of his classmates. Suddenly smitten, Steven begins to pursue Anke, who falls for him when he protects her from a overly-lecherous customer. News travels fast in a close-knit neighborhood, however, and soon Clara and her brothers find out about the illicit relationship. Pushed to the edge, Steven will have to decide between his marriage with Clara and his love for Anke.—Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>
- Steven is an a New York accountant in training who works at his brother-in-law's automobile junkyard and is pissed off when he gets a raise for his birthday but not a partnership. They say business has been slow lately and he's not ready for a partnership.He says if they give him a partnership he'll triple their business.They refuse, but offer to give him a bigger raise instead.Steven gets mad and nearly comes to blows with the brothers.They scream they covered his apartment cost,paid his tuition and covered the hospital bills when Steven's baby was born,gave him his car to drive, and never pushed him to pay anything back.Steven threatens to quit when he graduates accounting school and one of the brothers tells him to go then and take his "secret formula" with him.Steven is taking courses and gives his classmate Annika a ride only to discover she's the belly dancer hired for a surprise birthday party for him at his apartment.Steven and his wife Clara both have pushy domineering mothers.Steven's mother doesn't care for Clara and thinks her brothers are unfair to Steven,but tells his sister she's made peace with her for Steven's birthday,then complains about the weirdos when she and her daughter take the subway,and Clara's horny best friend and neighbor is startled when Steven walks up to her making out with a guy in the back of a car in the underground parking lot.Clara is loving and loyal but ticked off that Steven would rather refuse her brother's $40 a week raise offer and quit if they don't make him a partner, which his mother agrees with,and Clara says she'll try to get her brothers to make him a partner,but he is annoyed when she says if they have to scrimp and save she'll short change his mother, rather than them and their baby, or HER mother.Clara's mother has told her only children are no good because they cause too much dependency and tells her to have at least four children with Steven to keep him,and Steven's mother thinks Clara is jealous of her when the opposite seems to be true.Annika performs at the party and is such a hit that even Steven's mother gets into it. The next morning, Steven wakes up and Clara is too tired to make out.Steven gets up from the bed and sees Annika's gold bra on the bedroom floor by a chair.Later,at the automobile graveyard, a customer storms off when asked to pay a huge deposit, and Steven shows up with a sledgehammer and says they need to get more expensive cars and sell them.He breaks a few car windows and they accuse him of marrying their sister and getting her pregnant just to muzzle in on a business they've been in since they were kids, and they tell him he's no great catch, and they're deducting the broken windows from his pay.Steven discovers Annika has left her belly dancer bra in his jacket and it's cool that night he searches for her. A classmate of his wants to keep the bra and give it to Annika himself but he knows she really wants Steven.Steven sees Annika looking for a bus and returns it to her, and later gives her a ride after his classmate drives off,but the classmate and Clara's best friend see them drive off.The classmate says to leave it alone.Steven drives Annika to her next dancing job at a fat sleazy millionaire's mansion and then breaks in and saves her when the millionaire tries to rape her despite her protest that she's not a hooker.Steven nearly beats the guy to death before she stops him,but when he calls Clara and says he's late because of a flat tire he's getting fixed,the fat man revives and attacks him from behind with a steel rod around his throat,and Annika takes the fat man down with a wine bottle to the back of his head.Steven and Annika flee,but a lady walking her dog sees them drive off.Steven takes Annika home and she said she's planning to move to Morocco.Her apartment is filled with spears and hunting trophies and she admit she once saw a lion killed and left when the chief wanted her to be his 29th wife. They dance to tribal hunting music and end up having sex on the bed and in the shower.Steven returns home to find his wife asleep and he covers her up and turns off the television.The next day while shaving,he tells her the tire is fixed and then he hears on the news that the rich fat man he assaulted, Victor Delarouge, a wealthy industrialist,is in critical condition in the hospital after his neighbor reported finding him assaulted.The neighbor also reported two people leaving in a Sedan.Today is Steven's last day of accounting school and he says he's going to be late again having a few celebratory drinks with classmates,then he changes the subject by telling Clara her best friend has a boyfriend and gently puts off Clara's advances because he's so distracted.He kisses her and the baby goodbye and heads out saying he has inventory to do.When he gets to the auto shop his brother-in-laws wonder why he didn't bring call them when he had a flat.In his office he calls the nervous Annika and tells her about Victor and suggest they meet to talk.Back at Steven's apartment Clara's best friend feels guilty as Clara puts up some diapers, and confesses she saw Steven driving off from school with with Annika.Clara leaves her with the baby,takes a cab to the auto lot,tells her brothers and they attack Steven,and Clara even joins in.Clara ends up fighting with her brothers too and Steven fights them all off and drives away.She screams he'll never see their baby again and he screams back he never wanted to marry her but her brothers forced him into it lying that they'd give him a partnership.She screams obscenities at him and her brothers chase him as he drives off.Clara goes home and rips up the celebratory balloons and smashes his picture as her friend looks on. Steven's sister and mother advise him to go to the bank and get all the money out now. Steven goes to the bank but Clara and her mother are tailing him and try to get all the money out of the bank too,although Steven actually wants to split everything 50/50. Steven storms out of the bank after security is called to break up the dispute and reads in the papers that Victor has died of his injuries.He meets his classmate at a restaurant, the male one from before, and confesses everything.The classmate says to explain things to his wife and beg her forgiveness.That night Clara and all her siblings are driving around,now her rather hypocritical brothers are telling Clara she should forgive Steven and that it was a meaningless fling like they claim a lot of married men have.Their sister is convinced something's been going on with Steven for a long time and they tell her to stay out of it. Steven attends his final class and graduates.Afterwards he and his friend find Annika waiting in his car. His classmate tells him to be careful and he gets in and Annika says she's leaving and asks him to drive her to the airport.He says she should stay and they should both go to the police because if she goes she'll be leaving him hanging with this.She angrily says no one tells her what to do and she doesn't owe him anything especially since he already got sex from her. They drive off tailed by his classmate in a car after he knocks Clara's friend down into garbage for blabbing.Clara introduced them at Steven's birthday party and apparently he's the one she was in the back of the car with.Clara and her brothers are tailing Steven and Annika too.Steven tells Annika the police know it was a Sedan driving away from Victor's.Annika replies they don't have his license plate.He takes her back to her place and she says she's packing to leave and he can have whatever of her stuff he wants.He just wants her to turn herself in but she says even though they'll be cleared because it was self-defense she won't be allowed to leave the country until then and she wants to leave now, and she doesn't want to risk their being found guilty because she doesn't want Victor to stop her from leaving that way either.She tries to come on to Steven,but he pushes her away and then she pulls a picture of a 2-year-old boy out of her wallet and says that's her son being raised by an old couple in Tangier until she can get some money together and she hasn't seen him in over a year.Steven understands and hugs her.Clara and her brothers burst in and the brothers take Steven's car keys. Clara calls Annika a slut.She asks if the suitcases mean they're running away together.One of her brothers punches Steven in the stomach when he tries to explain. Clara attacks Annika's boxes with a kitchen knife and sees baby toys and accuses Annika of trying to steal Steven away to make him a father to her baby.Clara shreds up the teddy bear and stomps the toy plane. Steven tries to get her to stop and her brothers attack him again.They beat him up and join Clara in tearing up the apartment and Annika's things.Annika struggles with Clara and her wrist is cut.This seems to stop the siblings and Annika tells them to just leave.Clara throws the gold bra at Steven,drops the knife,and she and her brothers leave.Steven apologizes to Annika and offers to get her a cab but she replies that she'll manage. "I'm lighter now." Steven nods and leaves.Clara and her brothers go back to the auto yard.She says they should have done worse to Steven.They ask if they should have dragged him home in chains,but she says she doesn't want him anymore. Clara also blames what happened on her brothers for not keeping their promise to make Steven a partner.Steven sneaks into the auto yard,sets his car on fire and when they go out to put out the fire, he sneaks into the office and loads the shotgun. Clara finds him and runs screaming to her brothers and the older one whips out a pistol as he comes out with the shotgun.He says he's agreed to go along with Steven's high-class car plan and he'll even make him a partner but Stephen isn't too interested in listening and fires the shotgun around them.He tells him to take their partnership and shove it.The younger brother comes at him swinging the fire extinguisher and the shotgun goes off and he's accidentally grazed! The older brother swings a car part at him and Steven knocks him down with the butt of the shotgun and Clara struggles with him to stop him from shooting him.Steven dares them to make their sister a widow,then he tries to drag the protesting Clara away.Her brothers scream at him to leave the police out of it if he wants a partnership.As Steven drags Clara off,a couple of other guys drive in in.Steven finally lets Clara go and storms off.Clara starts following Steven screaming she'll never give him a surprise party again and she hates his mother.It is implied the newcomers to the garage may be Victor's goons and Clara's brothers could be in trouble when the burned car's license plate is seen as the film ends.
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