Christine Harbort
Flanders, a famous female author, travels 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall into the German capitol. She is deeply depressed of the events because she saw the communistic states as a very good thing that has now ended. In the joy of these days she finds no person to understand her, so she has to travel back to Munich. After meeting several people, known and unknown, it seems as if there will be no way to go.
Ramona lives her lonely life in Berlin working in a lipstick factory. One day she accidentally runs into Andrzei, a Polish mechanic illegally selling cigarettes in Germany during the weekend. One thing leads to another, and soon she finds herself pregnant. Then her life starts falling apart, when Andrzei tells her he already has a wife back in Poland and her baby dies shortly after its premature birth.
It is 1988. Jacob (Gottfried John), from Hamburg in West Germany, falls in love with Elisabeth (Angelica Domröse) in East Germany. When they secretly meet in East Berlin, it seems the Stasi (secret police) knows about it. When Jacob visits her village, someone informs on him and he is deported. Elisabeth knows who begrudges her this love and takes her revenge. Critics note that in this film, director Heiner Carow revisits the themes of his 1972 smash hit, The Legend of Paul and Paula, which became a cult film throughout Germany.
Winter 1968. Historian Dr. Dallow is released from prison. He is still trying to cope with and understand why he was put behind bars for 21 months for defamation of the state. His supposed "crime:" for five minutes he accompanied a cabaret chanson on the piano. The film shows what "ordinary socialism" was like, letting the audience feel the threat under which the people in the GDR had to live over many years.
The philosopher Democritus has a toothache, so a dentist from ancient Abdera sets off for his house. En route, he gets into a fight with a donkey driver. This conflict eventually causes all of Abdera to go crazy. Just when the city is seconds away from having a civil war, Democritus' apprentice shows up to ease the city's tensions with a gift.
Karin, a well-known and loved midwife in her early forties, receives a high-order decoration from the state. While still overwhelmed with happiness about this honor, she is faced with a difficult decision when she encounters a young women who claims to be her daughter.
This tragic love story relates ten decisive years in the life of the great Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin, played by a young Ulrich Mühe.
Susanne is a young single mother who lives a somewhat "carefree" lifestyle. After quitting her job, she finds herself in trouble financially and attempts a minor insurance fraud to make ends meet. Despite its rare view of everyday socialism from a woman's perspective, East German officials were critical of this frank portrayal of a less-than-ideal socialist citizen and turned down all invitations for the film to be screened abroad.
A German stage actor finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany. As his associates and friends flee or are ground under by the Nazi terror, the popularity of his character supercedes his own existence until he finds that his best performance is keeping up appearances for his Nazi patrons.
35-year old ballet soloist Peter ends his career as a performance dancer and, on the occasion of his last stage performance, looks back on his career and his life. Peter′s retrospection is centred on the relationship with his professional and romantic partner Lotte, who he had once met at a joint performance. Peter remembers the landmarks of their love: their marriage, their child, and Lotte′s severe illness that threatened to end her career. In flashbacks, the film shows how the couple survived this crisis by working sacrificially to return to the stage and celebrate international success.
