Der Tod eines Handlungsreisenden

A young textile worker attempts to reunite with his love and is shot by border guards. A semi-documentarian movie with a strong pacifist message.

Jack Radford and his wife Sarah no longer love each other, but money keeps their marriage together. Jack runs the Donnington real estate agency, which Sarah and her brother Edward inherited from their father. Edward, a failed concert pianist, has not been involved in the business for years, but now a real estate scandal threatens to ruin the family business. An apartment building in Spain has collapsed due to structural defects, killing several people in the rubble. The company was heavily involved in the construction and sale. When a dead body is found in the Radfords' pool, Cliff Jordan, nearing the end of his career, gets back to work. At first, all he has is a bloody kitchen knife in his mailbox.

In the late 1950s, the collectivization of agriculture is in full swing in the East German village of Willshagen on the German-German border. Those in charge have to face many obstacles, especially from a large-scale farmer who is unwilling to join the co-op. All of a sudden, mysterious men in a fancy car appear in the village and show an interest in the rundown manor house. Gossip spreads quickly, and some villagers think there will be a re-parceling of properties and a land swap with West Germany. They assume everything will go back to how it used to be and even expect the count to return to his manor. In preparation, the situation in the village escalates at a fevered pitch.

Engineer Strebel′s apprentices think of nothing else but music and dancing, although they should really concentrate on their marks. Consequently, Strebel is anything but delighted with his pupil. To top it all, a TV show becomes interested in a performance by Strebel′s apprentices. To calm down their teacher, Jutta Fröhlich, who has already cast an eye on Strebel, makes him an offer: When they better their marks, Strebel would permit them to make a performance on television.