Berlin is in Germany

Martin Schulz went to prison in East Germany in 1989; when he is released eleven years later, the country he comes out into is a different country. Berlin has changed, the money has changed, the neighbourhood he lived in has changed; his former wife has built a new life and his son does not know his father. Martin wants to drive a taxi but is not admitted to the examination because of his record, and so he learns that being free is not by itself enough. Hannes Stöhr’s ninety seven minute German film shows the bill for reunification not at the level of the state but in the daily errands of one man. Jörg Schüttauf plays Martin, with Julia Jäger in the cast. It is the director’s first feature and his graduation film; shown in the Panorama section of the Berlinale in 2001, it won the audience award.