Horst Reinecke

In 1952, former farmhand Erich Kattner arrives in a Mecklenburg village from West Germany to take on a new farming job, which he had originally planned to do together with his wife. She has died shortly beforehand, and so he finds himself alone with the almost unmanageable work. His predecessor has capitulated, the new house and barn are only half-finished, tree stumps still have to be cleared in the fields and much more besides. He is skeptical of outside help. He asks Thekla, the maid of the richest farmer, whom he met on his first day in the village, to start working for him, but she refuses. When she does start working on Erich's farm after an approach from her "master", he only sees her as a work partner.

Two school classes compete against each other. The prize for the winner is a trip to the Baltic Sea. Lars, Peter and the group leader Manni are confident of victory in the cross-country game, after all they have gained experience in the game as "Chapaev's cavalry army". The first point goes to them. However, they fail the math Olympiad - an Indian movie was more important to them than learning. And before the soccer match, they split into two groups. Lars leads a pitiful remnant of Chapaev riders, while Peter plays Indians with the others. At the soccer match, they put legs on each other, and the other class wins that point too. After the defeat comes the realization: maybe they should practice "Cosmonaut" together again - until next year's competition.

DEFA crime film about the smuggling of PVC across the (still open) border from East to West Berlin.