Martin Reik

A lighthearted look at the opening of the border crossing of Bornholmer Straße in Berlin from the point of view of the confused border guards.

Astrid is a comedian who makes people laugh for a living; her husband Markus is her manager and the two of them work well together. They have a nine-year-old daughter and are expecting their second child. When they learn that their child will not be born healthy, they are at first optimistic that they will be able to meet this challenge – although they have no idea what awaits them. But the closer it gets to the due date, the more Astrid begins to worry about the future of her unborn child as well as that of her family and her career. After many discussions and arguments Astrid realises that the decision that will affect all their lives must be made by her alone. What complicates matters further is the fact that, as a successful entertainer, she is in the eye of the public and the media.

After many years, geologist Ina Sedlitz returns to her home village of Neukirch - a place that has been transformed from a former brown coal mining area into a popular tourist destination. Ina only wants one thing: to transfer her inheritance of the family hotel to her niece Mara and finally put the past behind her. But when she is asked to draw up a geological report for the man-made lake, she comes across dangerous instabilities - and the shadows of a long-suppressed family secret.

After losing his job as a marketing officer, Walter, a workaholic in his forties, finds himself in an existential crisis and takes on the identity of another man.

Nine young actors leave behind their daily lives in Berlin and travel to the country to audition for a summer theatre production to be performed in the ruins of an old church. A once-renowned Swiss director is using this week of rehearsals to find the lead for this production of “Hamlet”. The director is staying privately at the home of an old woman, but the actors are being put up at a run-down hotel with very thin walls.

The insurance salesman Vincent Baumann, a cold-blooded careerist and minion of a merciless system, becomes a victim of the very corporations he is representing. Degraded to a henchman he grimly struggles to get back on the job market. He fights to climb the social ladder. In the process he realizes that there are other values than income and success. He decides against his previous ideology and for another human being, for Lisa Sokulowa. They don’t have a future. But they celebrate a small triumph against the dominance of the ruling system.