MFDB

Storyline

It’s the evening before a wedding. The hen party is due to take place in a typical Berlin bar.Bruce Weber, an American, has persuaded his German girl friend, Anke, to marry him, even though they have only known each other for a month. Bruce,however, is beginning to get cold feet and doesn’t seem ready for the responsibility. Whilst Anke may be determined to found the right family at last for her and her bi-cultural baby, Bruce is beginning to have his doubts.Should he stay in Berlin and give his life a sense of purpose, or should he turn his back on everything and continue to drift as before? The hen night will, he feels, provide a solution. But what kind of a hen party is it anyway when the only official guest seems to be Anke’s mother, who has raised objections to the wedding and whom Anke ends up throwing out of the bar? Can you still call it a hen night if the only other guests are not real guests at all but a motley crew of just about every Tom, Dick and Harry who happens to be there? Those present include two Russian buskers who, instead of working together end up stealing from each other; a Brazilian student who is about to be deported from Germany; a Moroccan building site labourer who can’t seem to leave Germany; a young Thai woman desperate to leave her German husband and an unemployed, dejected east German who is helped onto his feet again because he is the only one who knows the precise height of the Berlin Wall. To cap it all, the bridegroom suddenly does a runner from the bar and wanders aimlessly about the city. When he returns, he announces his intention to call off the wedding. At this, Anke leaves the party, which subsequently degenerates into a tragicomic fiasco and eventually turns into a wild, uncontrollable carnival-like celebration of hopelessness. But, the next morning, reality awaits all of them . . .

Festivals & Academy awards and others

Berlin International Film Festival 2001
Competition