In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts

1989, East Berlin, shortly before the fall of the Wall. Family, friends and political comrades gather to celebrate the 90th birthday of Wilhelm Powileit, a veteran Communist.

1989, a modest suburban house in East Berlin, shortly before the fall of the Wall. Family, friends and political comrades gather to celebrate the 90th birthday of Wilhelm Powileit, an unapologetically hardline veteran Communist suffering the early stages of dementia. On the surface, all is cheerfully formal celebration. But behind the scenes, everybody but Wilhelm privately suspects that East Germany is cracking up.

Party guests include Wilhelm's long-suffering wife Charlotte and middle-aged stepson Kurt, both of whom paid a steep price for dedicating their lives to the same ideological cause. But there are conspicuous absences, too, including Kurt's hard-drinking Russian wife Irina and 32-year-old son Sascha.