This film takes place in East Germany in the late eighties shortly before the fall of the Iron Curtain. It is about two computer science graduates of the University of Leizig, who are being transferred to the sticks (a fictional one-horse town in the Thuringian Forest) for their non-conformance. At this point, a small quote is called, which summarizes the broached confict quite well.
>> "Genius will triumph everywhere..." "Not on this University!" <<
What makes this movie so special is its abundance of system-critical humor and the pronounced attention to detail. He convinces less with visual power, than with pointed wittiness and playing on often too true-to-the-truth stereotypes.
To understand the movie better, it is important to be aware of the time in which it appeared. It is still a mystery to me how it made it to the cinemas of the GDR, although the frankly caricatured government was still in uncontested power. Which makes this movie a real screen gem and such a rare thing.
I myself am a child of the GDR, grew up in the turning years and, like the two leading actors, studied computer science (although my skills were never at this high level). For me, it's a piece of my past. Nevertheless, I am always surprised how many of the jokes still hit the mark today.
