Alexander Leuschen

A series of comedic sketches.

What the trick and illusion artists Lina and Richard Kortmann have to offer their audience is by no means sensational. Their performances are too antiquated, so that the Kortmann show is only available from the Artists' Exchange at low rates. This also threatens the realization of Mr. and Mrs. Kortmann's secret wish - a private pension in the Black Forest for their old age. But they are not so quick to throw in the towel: together they devise a new trick that not only conjures up rabbits and paper flowers or makes them "magically" disappear from the stage; Kortmann manages to conjure people out of this world.

This story of the miller Florian, who gave all his money to the war against Napoleon, is loosely based on a true story. After the war, Florian's reimbursement is challenged, and he must also pay taxes on his destroyed mill. He resists the tax collectors and takes off to Vienna, where he intends to defend his rights. On the way, he rescues the Duchess of Guastalla from assault. She also wants to go to Vienna, as His Majesty Franz II is trying to contest an heir in her favor. With cunning, luck, and dagger, Florian fights his way through a slew of nobility and their secret police.

In the Jim-Crow South, Val Xavier is a bass-playing drifter who retains a wild, compassionate spirit amid neon-lit decay. Nicknamed “Snake Skin” for his animal-hide jacket, Val seeks to shed the emptiness of wealthy nightclubs and, after turning thirty, yearns for a modest, purposeful life grounded in honest work.

In 1928 Berlin, 19-year-old stenotypist Erna Halbe lands a prized typing job at Orga Privat. Thrust into the soul-killing monotony of a sprawling corporate office, she rallies her fellow typists to challenge unjust working conditions. Amid economic tremors foreshadowing the 1929 crash, Erna fights for workplace justice, and discovers first love in the city’s heady mix of hope and hardship.