German Currents Kino: 'Two to One'

Presented as part of AMONG FRIENDS – UNTER FREUNDEN, a campaign of the Goethe-Institut USA to celebrate and strengthen transatlantic friendship.

Summer 1990, Halberstadt, East Germany: The Berlin Wall has fallen, and the country is filled with uncertainty over what lies ahead. In a major step toward reunification, East German Marks can be exchanged for West German ones at a rate of two to one, giving citizens mere days to exchange their currency before the old bank notes become worthless. When three friends, Maren (Sandra Hüller), Robert (Max Riemelt), and Volker (Ronald Zehrfeld), stumble upon the vault near Halberstadt, where the old notes are being stored, they stuff their backpacks full of cash and hatch an intricate plan to put the soon-to-be worthless money into circulation. The group’s plan seems fool-proof until notes that never existed in the GDR begin to circulate. Writer-director Natja Brunckhorst spins the real events behind the “treasure of Halberstadt” into a crowd-pleasing tragicomedy adventure blending comedy, reflections on friendship, societal resilience, and community.

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