Comedy films are often big hits in German language cinema but they rarely make it across to the anglophone world and then usually only as ‘art films’ because of the language difference. But there are exceptions and in July 2003 Goodbye Lenin! was a hit in the UK. In that film a family, worried about the impact of German reunification in 1990 on their matriarch waking up from a coma, decided to create an illusion of the survival of her beloved GDR (i.e. the former East Germany). There have been several films about the events of 1990 and some have focused on what has been termed ‘Ostalgie’ – a certain kind of nostalgia for aspects of the culture of the GDR experienced post reunification. Zwei zu Eins is a comedy based on a real news event in East Germany in July 1990 when the merger of the two German currencies took place. The GDR Mark (‘Ostmark’) was replaced by the Bundesrepublik Mark – the mighty Deutschmark (DM) – and the GDR was left with the problem of millions of banknotes, most of which were stored secretly awaiting disposal. A group of thieves discovered the stash in the real world story. In this film it was a quartet of local workers from a small town with a manufacturing plant. They decided to steal large amounts of cash (justifying their appropriation of ‘the people’s money’) and exploit loopholes in the currency unification process to make money for their housing block.
The currency unification meant that East Germans would receive 1 Deutschmark for each ‘Ostmark’ in terms of relatively small sums and 1 DM for 2 Ostmarks for large sums of money. Before unification East Germans would have to exchange 20 Ostmarks for 1 DM so the July 1st exchange threatened an economic blitzkrieg in which East Germans could suddenly buy Western goods at what seemed to them very cheap rates. Nobody would want goods from the East, especially when labour costs would rise dramatically with workers paid in DMs. The key to success of the narrative construction in this film is that the quartet who find the money are not the conventional ‘heist gang’ but instead a form of extended family with Maren (Sandra Hüller) at its centre. She was once an airline stewardess but like everyone else she has been working at the local factory in Halberstadt. As the currency merger day of 1st July approaches all the residents of an isolated housing block on the edge of the urban area are facing up to redundancy. That includes Maren’s partner Robert (Max Riemelt) and her old schoolfriend Volker (Ronald Zehrfeld) who suddenly returns from seeking work in Hungary. The trio clearly have a history. They are joined by Maren’s uncle (Peter Kurth) who knows the underground storage depot, her mother (Ursula Werner) and her children, Jannek and her little girl Dini (a remarkable performance). Ultimately everyone in the block becomes involved in laundering the money by various means, one of which involves deals with Western salesmen. Throughout the narrative there are an ongoing debates about capitalism and socialism (but not in a heavy preachy way). The writer-director Nadja Brunkhorst said in a UK Radio 4 interview this week that this period in 1990 was like anarchism in the sense that for a few days there were virtually no rules. Some of the community are pleased to get one over the capitalists in the West but others are simply pleased to acquire household goods for free. These are two of the elements in the experiences of ‘Ossies’ as reunification takes hold and for some ‘Ostalgie’ becomes a thing.
To be clear. This isn’t an art movie. It’s closest to the idea of a family comedy and a feelgood film presented in ‘Scope with some great graphics in the credits sequence and several good song sequences on the soundtrack. It has a number of strengths that make it an audience winner. You don’t have to know the history of German reunification to follow the plotting, it’s designed for every audience to enjoy and according to Brunkhorst that’s exactly what happened last summer in Germany where it was a popular hit with all ages. July 1990 was a hot summer so the sun shines throughout and everyone is too excited by the fun of handling so much money to be too worried about the future. The performances all round are very good. Sandra Hüller had two Oscar nominations last year for Anatomy of a Fall and Zone of Interest. But she also has comedy experience in films like Toni Erdmann (Germany-Austria 2016). Ronald Zehrfeld is probably best known in the UK for his films with Christian Petzold such as Barbara (Germany 2012) and Phoenix (Germany 2014). Max Riemelt looked very familiar to me but I only recognise The Wave (Germany 2008) from his list of credits. Nadja Brunkhorst confirmed what I thought might be the case – all her principal characters were born in the GDR and they would have experienced reunification as children.
The film is distributed by TullStories as part of Jonny Tull’s ‘Joy of Cinema’ initiative. Find a cinema near you for screenings from May 2nd on this website. I hope audiences do find the film and enjoy it as much as I did.
itp Global Film 