Felix Maria Zappenfeld

Andreas Dresen's adaptation of Clemens Meyer's novel about a group of East German friends right after the fall of the Wall.

Hamburg, St. Pauli, New Year's Eve. Oskar Wrobel runs a music club in an old hospital at the edge of the Reeperbahn. While fireworks go off in the streets of St. Pauli, he prepares the big final party - the club has to close. Thankfully there is no time to think about it because the chaos is breaking into his living room, all while hell break loose at the club. The film, based on the novel by Tino Hanekamp, was filmed with hundreds of extras attending a real-life three-night-long party.

An unexpected encounter with an unfamiliar woman rouses Marlene, a young single mother, from her unsatisfying routine. Inspired by the provocative verve shown by her new friend, Marlene takes a plunge into the unknown. Is this what a life without children and obligations could look like? But during Marlene’s quest for freedom, piecemeal images from her childhood begin to intrude more and more, reawakening a repressed childhood trauma.