Gudrun Okras

1920s Germany. Two sisters aged six years, no sooner see their remaining parent buried when they are torn apart. Lotte goes to live with her upper middle class Dutch aunt in Holland, Anna to work as a farm hand on her German uncle's rural farm. The World War II impacts each of their lives and finally in old age they meet again.

Philipp, a closeted teacher, is dating a female colleague to keep up appearances. One night he stumbles into a gay bar and falls for a man. Transformed by this love, he is no longer afraid to face up to who he is.

Luise, called Pünktchen, and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late. Pünktchen decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can't resist stealing a golden lighter and Pünktchen's secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families finally can see the need for actions to be taken.

During a routine visit to an acquaintance, an old, single Sorbian woman reflects on her life.

A little bumblebee is tired of her daily routine and the other boring bumblebees. She flies to the place of her dreams and meets a frog who is also seeking something new. Despite their differences, the two animals become friends and start their adventure together. This children’s animation film was a success in East German cinemas. Older viewers, however, saw it as a metaphor for their longing to escape – daily life, or even their walled-in country.

The film is set in 1989/1990 at a time when the "socialist" ideology underwent another major revolutionary collapse and the supposedly only progressive German "socialist", but walled-in GDR, joined the free West German society of the Federal Republic of Germany. In those days, the son of an East German teacher turns his back on the GDR because he is fed up with the eternal talk of the alleged superiority of "socialist" society and this "socialist" old day is nothing but dreariness and eternal gray everyday life for him. His mother, the convinced teacher and communist Christine Rautmann, suddenly realizes that her eternal propaganda of a golden socialist future is not falling on fertile ground with either her son or her pupils. She is suddenly faced with the ruins of her life as a teacher and mother. She herself becomes a seeker on a tremendously shaky social ground.

Three elderly ladies, Carla, Lilli and Meta, who, after their hard earned holiday money is stolen by bank robbers, decide to steal from their local bank. Along the way their are romances, arguments and a few other unexpected surprises.

It is shortly after the fall of the Wall and Kadir is released from an East Berlin psychiatric clinic. Resolved to begin life over again in Germany, he soon has to accept that there is no longer a place for him.