Julia Gorr

While ageing border guard Alfred tries to save his now redundant border from demolition, Cupid's arrow strikes him. For over 30 years, border guard and passionate Verdi lover Alfred Birnbaum has been guarding a border in the idyllic no man's land between Germany and the Czech Republic. His only diversion is his daily encounter with the pretty Suzanne, who crosses the border every morning on her bicycle with a heavy sack of rice. When he hears the news that Europe is now opening its borders to the Czech Republic as part of the EU's eastward expansion, rendering him superfluous, he does everything he can to save "his" border.

Nine young actors leave behind their daily lives in Berlin and travel to the country to audition for a summer theatre production to be performed in the ruins of an old church. A once-renowned Swiss director is using this week of rehearsals to find the lead for this production of “Hamlet”. The director is staying privately at the home of an old woman, but the actors are being put up at a run-down hotel with very thin walls.