Storyline

The architect Daniel Brenner is in his late thirties when he receives his first challenging and lucrative commission: to design a cultural center for a satellite town in East-Berlin. He accepts the offer under the condition that he gets to choose who he works with. This way, he reunites with former colleagues and friends - most of them architects or students of architecture who have since chosen a different profession due to personal restraint or economic confinement. Together, they develop a concept which they hope will be more appealing to the public than the conventional and dull constructions common to the German Democratic Republic. However, their ambitious plans are once and again foiled by their conservative supervisors. As frustration grows, Daniel has trouble keeping his career in balance with his family-life: his wife Wanda wants to leave for West-Germany.—C. Winter

Plot Keywords

architect, partnership, parenting, gender roles, friendship, east germany, divorce, communism, career, architecture, socialism, secret police, resistance, berlin wall

Short Review

The last DDR film , the shooting was taking place in a hard time where every thing in the country was boiling and approaching its demolish . The end of the 40 years ugly country . The Berlin wall fall during a normal shooting day and the cast continue shooting avoiding listening to the Radio not to disturb the team ! I am wondering how they complete every thing and why ? .. The wall already fall ,and new changes are going on , was it meaningful to continue a script that refers to the political corruption of the DDR and the lost dreams of the east Germans who are decaying in that dull atmosphere while they were in fact celebrating the new age ?The director did not add anything , he didn't refer to the wall .. although that might give the film a new face and might have helped to save it from its failure ..but the theme was interesting , what kind of queasiness and stuffiness could people suffer in a totalarismic beaurcratic society and that was good symbolized in the dull Architecture of The DDR . the film gives a sense of the city , the ugly east Berlin in its last days

Trailer

Streaming Service

1. Amazon Video : Rent from $1.99, Or $0.00 with a Prime membership