Adolf Winkelmann Filmproduktion

Julian is a 12-year-old boy whose family is just scraping by in the Ruhr industrial region of Germany in the early 1960s . When his mother and younger sister go away for a while, he is left mostly alone in the apartment while his father works in the coal mine. He has to confront the confusing world of adults and older boys and the older girl next door on his own. Finally events build up and threaten to tear the family apart.

When Vera Rohleder wants to meet her husband Bernhard at the airport where he should arrive from Moscow, she is not successful. Later she is told that Bernhard died in a tragic traffic accident. She flies over to Moscow to identify the corpse, but the dead man shown to her doesn't seem to be her husband. When she tries to find out what really happened she gets to meet Andrej Bubka, a Moscow militia officer, who also looks for her husband. Vera cannot believe what Bubka tells her about the reasons why her husband has disappeared.

The Earth shortly before its end. The houses in the cities are deserted, the streets smashed. The sky shimmers dark gray.

Katlewski is in his early 20s and a miner from Recklinghausen. He no longer realizes his marriage to his wife and the prosperity they have achieved.

Adolf Winkelmann maneuvers through Kassel’s shopping district with a Bolex camera strapped to his body, filming himself and the attention he attracts.