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A large group of people sit in front of a table full of money. Two policemen guard the door

Two to One Zwei Zu Eins

  Natja Brunckhorst

  Germany     113 minutes

Synopsis

A heist always comes with a certain amount of tension. But what if the spoils of the crime had to be spent quickly as well? A variation on that absurd scenario actually played out in the summer of 1990, when the East German government gave its citizens six days to exchange their old currency for new Deutschmarks as part of the reunification effort. That poses a particular challenge for an unlikely group of thieves, who are sitting on a fortune in soon-to-be-obsolete Ostmarks lifted from a government vault.

Anatomy of a Fall‘s Sandra Hüller leads an all-star cast in Natja Brunckhorst’s breezy crime comedy, with Max Riemelt (Sense 8), Ronald Zehrfeld (Phoenix), and Peter Kurth (A Heavy Heart) rounding out the core ensemble. The film is colored with a sense of nostalgia for the old GDR, which plays out in cheerfully madcap fashion as these socialist citizens suddenly find themselves in very capitalist circumstances.

  

 German with subtitles

In Focus: Germany on Screen

the flag of GermanyThis film is part of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival’s In Focus: Germany on Screen collection highlighting the work of Germany’s most gifted auteur filmmakers.

Learn more about this collection

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Film Credits

  •   Susanne Mann, Karsten Stöter, Paul Zischler, Martin Rehbock
  •   Natja Brunckhorst
  •   Ramin Sabeti
  •   Martin Langer
  •   Sandra Hüller, Max Riemelt, Ronald Zehrfeld, Ursula Werner, Peter Kurth
  •   Hannah von Hübbenet, Amaury Laurent Bernier
  •   ROW Pictures GmbH, zischlermann Filmproduktion GmbH

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