Im Übergang – Protokoll einer Hoffnung

The film opens with celebrations on New Year’s Eve 1989/1990 - the first united celebration of East and West Germans, on the Glienicker Bridge; the infamous bridge between Berlin Wansee and Potsdam where spies were exchanged during the Cold War; a bridge which in the GDR adopted the suggestive name "Bridge of Unity". The film closes on the same bridge with the equally euphoric reunification party on the 3rd October 1990. The viewer experiences the short year of transition to German unity in Potsdam through the personal experiences and reflections of a young man.

"Once again Kurt Tetzlaff portrays Alexander, who in 1990 works as a nurse and is active in the “Action Reconciliation”. The sense of departure of the autumn of 1989 slowly gives way to disappointments about the outcome of the People’s Chamber elections in 1990, the currency reform and the Unification Treaty. The political and social changes took place at a rapid pace that many found hard to follow. The sense of community that carried people through 1989 is fading. “Now it’s every man for himself”, Alexander states. He has no use for capitalism: “I feel just as lied to and cheated as before.” Resignation spreads."
(Philip Zengel)