Pergamon Film

German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR regime.

All his life, Michael Hartung, owner of a hopelessly debt-ridden video store, has bet on the wrong horse. When an ambitious journalist confronts him with the results of his research, everything changes for the charmingly melancholy Micha. Many years ago, as an employee of the Reichsbahn, he is said to have organized the largest mass escape in the GDR. Stasi files prove the case. He was apparently even imprisoned and then deported to an open-cast lignite mine. Seduced by a lavish salary, Micha confirms the story, although only fragments of it are true.