The World Machine

This comedy is set in the tiny and fictitious state of Sachenia, located close to the Alps. The sleepy and provincial region has magnificent landscape and beautiful old buildings, and is one of Central Europe's best kept secrets. The hero of this cheerful and ironical story is Rudolph VIII, the last regent of the tiny state, who was forced to abdicate several years beforehand. He still proudly wears his royal title even though his kingdom has become increasingly tinier over the years, and is now little more than a city state. Rudolph lives in exile. Rather than choosing some faraway place to live, he decided to reside just beyond the borders of his country.

Police Commissioner Alex Glass has been twisted into a sarcastic cynic by the hard luck story that is his life and by his daily contact with the criminals of Berlin's underground. His new assistant, Shirly Mai, is an attractive and conscientious woman who embodies a quality of virtue that her boss gave up a long time ago. They have both been assigned to solve a series of gruesome murders that have been taking place in Berlin's drug and prostitution ganglands. The prime suspect is George Miskowski, a pusher who supplies Berlin's brothels and hookers with cocaine and heroin.

Viennese vegetable merchant Karl Kassbach becomes a member of a right-wing extremist organization, which plans numerous attacks on democratic institutions and journalists. The film attempts to portray a realistic and detail-oriented study of the mind of the "Kleinbürger", trapped between the fringes of the lower and middle-classes.

Directed by Peter Patzak