Unterleuten: The Torn Village (2020)

Adapted from the hugely popular German eponymous novel by Julia Zeh and from the successful writer/director duo Magnus Vattrodt and Matti Geschonneck (Südstadt, Das Zeugenhaus), Unterleuten is set in a small town near Berlin in the former DDR and is a story about happiness and what keeps us together. Unterleuten is a village set in the deepest province not far from Berlin in a state once part of the former GDR. 30 years after Germany's reunification, the village is an uneasy mix of those who profited from the fall of the Wall and those who lost out, all living side-by-side as friends, enemies and neighbors. Then there are the newbies from the West, whose dream to breed horses together with their fear of pollution and the sighting of rare birds lead them to abandon Berlin and head to this idyllic hamlet in the sticks. Chaos ensues when the mayor announces surprise plans for a wind farm and introduces the Bavarian consultant and the engineering firm who plan to confiscate private property for the second time in the town's history. As secrets are unveiled, the whole town begins to turn on itself and the outsiders. But who will win?