Acting
In the troubled state of Ocantros, the prime minister is assassinated. Martin Katrup, who is responsible for setting up a large printing plant, is also on the island at this time. A short time later, two of his colleagues disappear without a trace and Katrup sets off in search of them. The situation is exacerbated when the secret service tries everything in its power to spark a coup and a civil war.
East Berlin, early 1970s: the funny, somewhat eccentric repair mechanic Roland and the cashier Christel quickly become a couple. After some back and forth, they get married and their first child is soon on the way. But the young couple's everyday life is not always free of conflict: Christel has taken an evening course to get ahead professionally, while Roland takes care of the child and household after work. Will their love withstand the strain? In "Standesamt - Eintritt frei", director Manfred Mosblech tells a subtle and cheerful everyday GDR story about two young people who are searching for the right path for themselves between professional life, friendships and marriage.
A Jewish ghetto in the east of Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio broadcast announcing the Soviet Army is making slow by steady progress towards central Europe. In order to keep his companion in misfortune, Mischa, from risking his life for a few potatoes, he tells him what he heard and announces that he is in possession of a radio - in the ghetto a crime punishable by death. It doesn't take long for word of Jakob's secret to spread - suddenly, there is new hope and something to live for - and so Jakob finds himself in the uncomforting position of having to come up with more and more stories.
A senior professor is kidnapped in the park by residents of a veterans home. Once there, he is asked to invent a "rejuvenating machine" to restore their youth.
Oliver is in the 4th grade. He hasn't been paying attention in magic class and gets a big, fat five on a test. He has to have the work signed by his parents, but he is ashamed and doesn't want to cause his parents any grief. So he tries to get rid of the five with magic or at least turn it into a three. He manages to create talking guinea pigs and singing geese, but the five remains. The other children are already angry with him because he has no time to play with all the magic exercises. And so he decides to confess his mishap to his parents. His mother shows him how he can turn the five into a better grade - and that has to do with learning.
Brigitte is caught between two men: on the one hand there is the ambitious Klaus, the father of her young daughter, and on the other the sensitive Wolfgang, her flatmate, to whom she feels attracted. With the active help of the housemates, especially her mother Klucke, she finds out who her heart really beats for.
The thirty year old bee is a daredevil, everything seems to work for him. But suddenly a tragic event tears him out of his carelessness. In the explosion of a carbide furnace in operation, a colleague is killed.
A young woman does everything she can to catch the eye of her chosen one. In the end, she even goes into the water - wearing a diving suit. A cheerful underwater love story for GDR television, which also casually promotes the diving section of the pre-military Society for Sport and Technology in the GDR.
Hannes, 22, and his girlfriend Tanja have to realize that there are things in their relationship that have an unfavourable effect on their togetherness; now they try to find out why their love should not last. Tilli, Hannes' 16-year-old sister, and her boyfriend Robert, on the other hand, just look sadly at the rest of their remaining pocket money and wish they could get rid of their money worries. But for Tilli's family with their seven children, who live in a district town in the GDR, it's not that easy. However, the extended family's life is not disrupted by problems, rather it is strengthened and the family's cohesion is intact.
The 20-year-old Berliner Wilhelm, called Willi, returns from two years as a prisoner of war to the village of Weltzow in the Havel region, where he meets Hans Graber, a former comrade from the front. Hans is now a teacher and finds Willi a job with innkeeper Brunzel. His daughter, Mrs. Leidenfrost, has been a widow for five years, as her husband was killed at the front. Over time, she begins to take a liking to Willi, but Willi is not aware of this. He is interested in the dressmaker Ulla, but skips their first meeting when he learns in the inn that Ulla has an illegitimate child.
Uwe is a chemistry student and works as an excavator driver on various construction sites at weekends. One weekend, he meets the nursery nurse Gabi. As it turns out later, they owe their encounter to the daughter of the construction site brigadier Trunzer. But it doesn't stop at this one encounter and the resulting flirtation, as the two fall in love within a very short time. On another weekend, Uwe accompanies Gabi to visit her family. When construction site brigadier Trunzer returns from vacation a few days later, he first asks Uwe where he has been during his absence, to which Uwe replies: "I was in Honolulu - bet?".
Letter carrier Eva is in her late twenties, unmarried and the mother of a twelve-year-old son. She falls in love with Jon, a bargeman who is unfortunately already engaged. This spurs Eva on to turn her life around. She changes jobs and changes her appearance. Her happiness seems perfect when Eva becomes pregnant...
On the eve of the German Peasants' Revolt, painter Joerg Ratgeb is occupied by a crisis of his own: finding a model for a Christ figure. He sets off on a journey to consult with his artistic role model, Albrecht Dürer. Although Ratgeb has always tried to stay out of the political conflict, his journey brings him face-to-face with peasant revolutionaries and the brutality and violence of their daily lives.
A ship from the GDR fishing fleet is on its way home. The work is done, the hold full of fish. Captain Nipmerow could be satisfied with that, but he has a completely different problem to deal with - a matter about which he also owes the shipping company a statement.
Berlin landlady Mrs. Klucke looks after the residents of Florentiner Strasse 73 like a mother, who could do with her help. When pregnant Brigitte is looking for a furnished room, she ends up with Mrs. Klucke. However, she has to make do with a spare room. At first Brigitte is quite disappointed that all sorts of residents and their guests regularly pass through the room, but over time she gets used to this situation. She soon comes to love the idiosyncrasies of the other residents of Florentine 73 and the motherly care of her landlady.
The film describes the activity of an ABV of the People's Police in its section in East Berlin. A mixture of “positive” characters from the beginning, the extensively staged “owl”, who is introduced as a criminal and over the course of time, especially due to the influence of the ABV, develops into a good citizen, and incorrigible characters, with whom the ABV fails with its extensive attempts at rehabilitation and who are arrested after having committed again offenses.
In 1960, farmer Walter Wagemühl learns from the West that his life is coming to an end. In order to pass the farm into loyal hands, he sends his adopted daughter Catharina to the East to marry his prudent nephew Ewald. The surprising request puts him in a huge quandary. He is about to take his final exams and the university officials have earmarked an academic career for him. But Ewald wants nothing more than to become chairman of the socialist cooperative in Hullerbusch. And now this too...
The fifty-four year old Dora, formerly a vegetable cleaner in the village and now cook in a holiday home, drinks her two glass of beer daily after work - one of the few amenities she allows. Her job as a senior cook takes her very seriously. With her endearing zeal, she writes in her free evenings on a manuscript about mistakes and possibilities of the large kitchen.
For thirty years, Karl Achilles has been working at the chemical collective in Bitterfeld. But now his last day as a master at the plant has come. He is about to retire; even if Karl, who finds ending his working life difficult, wanted to stay on, it would not be possible. Karl’s colleagues have arranged a farewell dinner for the retiring master at an outdoor restaurant. But on his last day of work, before the farewell dinner, he meets all sorts of people: both colleagues and people, who do not work at the plant. A mosaic of the biography of a person who found fulfilment in his work and now has to look for the meaning of his life anew.
New cooling towers are to be built for the power station in the small village of Zaspenhain. The work is being carried out by builders from Poland, including Jerzy. Gitta, a young woman from Zaspenhain, works at the power station as a laboratory assistant. When the Polish construction workers arrive, she falls in love with Jerzy. But then the past intervenes...
