Germany soon after the fall of the Wall: Two illiterates in an old Hanomag truck are on their way to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. But how will they get there if they can't read the place names? On the way, they are joined by a Russian deserter who only speaks his native language...
“somewhere david bowie sings ‘everything’s falling into place’.
most of the time, it doesn’t. in this case, it was like that. after two joyless years of acting at a very small theater in the niederrhrein area and a quite successful but inconsequential guest performance at the hanover state theater, i kept my head above water with small television roles and appearances. my son was on the way, and i had almost given up looking for the right theater, which i was never to find, when i received a call from the casting icon an dorthe braker. she suggested i introduce myself to a young director who had just attracted some attention with a comedy. detlev buck. a friend from acting school days had given her the idea. the script arrived by mail and a casting was arranged. it was love at first sight. we did test shots, improvised wildly and soon it was clear that buck had found one of his main actors and i had found the director for my, if not first, then nevertheless most important film. with very few exceptions, i have never again been able to experience such a fantastically prepared production. in addition, as the first person to be cast, i accompanied the entire further casting in my role as kipp and therefore had already played some scenes dozens of times with the most diverse partners before the first day of shooting. the result speaks for itself.
perhaps the biggest compliment, besides the “honorable mention from the international jury of the berlin film festival” and five german film awards, was the caption to a shooting report in an east german newspaper showing horst krause, detlev buck and me. it read: 'the director with his disabled actors'”.