Mike is twenty, attractive, intelligent and a loner. He only shares his thoughts and an apartment in a prefabricated housing estate in Rostock with his best friend Dustin. There, on the roof with a view of the sea, they smoke their joints and sort stolen goods. Mike doesn't think beyond the next day. But everything changes when he is caught by Konrad Böhm during a break-in. The charismatic businessman introduces Mike to a parallel world of international lobbyists and former GDR secret service agents who have saved their networks for reunified Germany.
Acting
Bernhard Schütz's Böhm oozes menacing charm like he was born in it.
Cinematography
Rostock's prefab estates shot as modernist ruins, sea always watching.
Writing
Dialogue that trusts you to understand what's unsaid.
Director
Marc Bauder
Jacob Matschenz
Mike Hiller and Rolf Hiller
Bernhard Schütz
Konrad Böhm
Jenny Schily
Elke Hiller
Heinz Hoenig
Herbert Tieschky
Jürgen Holtz
Zschernigk
Franziska Wulf
Janine
Rosa Enskat
Rita
Michael Abendroth
Frings
Thomas Kügel
Dr. Schwiers
Ernst-Georg Schwill
Gerd Scholz
Götz Burger
Jochen Runke
Hubertus Hartmann
Bollhagen (uncredited)
Monika Hetterle
Ilse Zschernigk (uncredited)
Mario Pokatzky
Bodo (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film captures a specific post-reunification phenomenon: East German 'networks' of former Stasi and party officials who converted state connections into private power, often in property and lobbying.
Bauder based Böhm's operation on real lobbying firms that emerged from GDR intelligence structures in the 1990s—some still operating today.
DE
