The Prisoner of St. Petersburg

The Pope is in town and the night of his stay is anything but heavenly for some of Berlin′s inhabitants. Rich and poor, down-and-outs and policemen, street kids and taxi drivers - in their search for a little bit of happiness, they all end up on an amusing and at times harrowing odyssey through the labyrinth of the big city.

Marlene is a 2000 German biopic film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier and starring Katja Flint, Hans Werner Meyer and Herbert Knaup. It follows the life of the German actress Marlene Dietrich and her success in Hollywood.

Damiel is now married to Marion, runs the pizzeria “Da Angelo” and the two have a child. The solitarily remaining angel Cassiel is more and more dissatisfied with his destiny as a mere observer of human life and finally decides to take the great leap. As Karl Engel he soon gets into a dubious milieu and finds himself as the assistant of the German American Baker, who makes his money with shady arms deals and sends films east in exchange for weapons. Cassiel’s adventure turns into a “thriller” when he decides to put a stop to Baker’s game.

Flanders, a famous female author, travels in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall into the German capital. She is deeply depressed by the events because she saw the communist state as a very good thing that has now ended. In the joy of these days she finds no one to understand her, so she has to travel back to Munich. After meeting several people, known and unknown, it seems as if there will be no way to go.

The 1956 movie based on the theater play by Carl Zuckmayer based on the true story of cobbler Wilhelm Voigt who dressed up as a German military officer and, with the help of unsuspecting soldiers, took over the city hall in Köpenick and confiscated the city's purse.

In 1983 East Berlin, dedicated Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler begins spying on a famous playwright and his actress-lover Christa-Maria. Wiesler becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the couple, and faces conflicting loyalties when his superior takes a liking to Christa-Maria.

Now the subjects of a despotic chief, far from having any favor to expect from him, as both themselves and all they have are his property, or at least are considered by him as such, are obliged to receive as a favor what he relinquishes to them of their own property. He does them justice when he strips them. He treats them with mercy when he suffers them to live. In a beautiful house, during a beautiful day, next to a library with no books, a table is set for the last supper of its inhabitants.

David, a recently fired scrapyard worker and Marie, a prostitute, both about 20 years old, meet on New Year's Eve in Berlin and decide to run away together. As David's arm is plastered from an accident Marie continues to prostitute herself to finance their restless journey through the Ruhr area. Their love and their will to survive guide them though all problems.

Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.

At the peak of the Christmas holidays, an old double bass player reminisces about his time as a struggling jazz musician in Berlin.

Laura and Lucas live temporarily in Berlin and are set to go back to Lisbon together soon. I guess this is how I think about myself too. That I will go back to Lisbon soon. But I often find myself doubting it and becoming a kind of split self. Because now with this crisis and the very controversial austerity IMF program running in Portugal I found most of my friends leaving Lisbon; and family about to mortgage their homes. I wanted to talk about this feeling of separation that I see in my generation, about this state of being in between an apparent solid past and an unknown future, about this identity in transition.