The film takes place in two border cities (Frankfurt am Oder and Stubice), located one across from the other, in the German-Polish border drawn by the Oder river.
It portrays several different partially independent stories, but all of them sharing the same baseline, the desperation to achieve a better life (be it in a "better" country or in a better business), how political borders establish personal borders, how unaware of the others a few meters away we can be just because of that imaginary and dramatic line drawn by the "Masters", how nice, contemptible, deceptive, cold... the human nature can be...
The film is set previous the incorporation of Poland to the European Union, so at that time crossing the bridges over the Oder was quite a different story from now, there was a much clearer border there then, a border that hopefully, has partially faded (sure there are economical and social clear differences between both countries, but things are easing up).
Unfortunately, even today some of the characters of the film would have to face the same border faced almost 10 years ago. For Ukrainians, like "second class" Europeans, entering the European Union is still a problem. In spite of sharing with the rest of us the same history of feudalism, invasions, wars for territory, wars for religions... in spite of having had their borders redrawn in countless occasions... they still don't have the freedom of movement that other Europeans enjoy... I hope some day all European countries will be part of a same European State, yes, a State, not the blurred economical "union" that we have now...
The choice of place and nationalities involved happens to be particularly clever to me in showing how absurd some borders are. First, Frankfurt am Oder used to be a German city (well, Prussia encompassed good part of modern day Poland), but after the WWII it was split between Germany and Poland (giving birth to Stubice), then, the differences that German (or EU for this matter) government draws between Polish and Ukrainian citizens are especially stupid if we take into account that the borders between Eastern Poland and Western Ukraine have changed multiple times over the years (territories on both sides conform the historical region of Galitzia).
The overall (very positive) impression that the film left on me is not unlike the one left but this other great film Import-Export dealing with similar topics.
Last summer I was lucky enough to enjoy a few days in the astonishing beautiful city of Strasbourg. Among its many beauties, one that I especially enjoyed was the fact that after so many wars, after all the pain of WWI and WWII... now a pedestrian bridge crosses the Rhin, joining Strasbourg (currently France) with Kehl (Germany), making it extremely pleasant to go through a border too many times outlined in blood.
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