Friendship!

"The GDR!"

"The German Democratic Republic!"

"The socialist state of workers and farmers."

"We were all the same. We all had the same apartments."

"We all looked the same."

"We all ate the same food."

"We knew what everyone else knew."

"Our agents were the most secret agents in the whole world."

"We were the world's best drivers."

"Our accident rate was so low, that we could drive cardboard cars."

"Our secretaries played sports with us."

"We liked to dance."

"We liked to march."

"We were all awfully fond of the GDR!"

"A country that other countries could only dream of."

"I am Tom. The country that others could only dream of -"

"- and I were always at odds, ever since the beginning."

GDR! Come on!

"I didn't like the dress code."

"And the GDR didn't like that I didn't like the dress code."

"When I was 12, I was a passionate collector of rare objects."

"But my country had no appreciation for my passion."

"Our class consisted of 23 students."

"And my teacher had resolved that I would never amount to anything."

"But then Veit joined our class."

Friendship! Friendship!

"Immediately after the death of his father, he and his mother moved to Berlin."

"She had him sit next to me."

"Veit was just my number. Veit was my 24th."

* Music "Der goldene Reiter" von Joachim Witt *

"Veit was reserved, and didn't talk about earlier"

"Veit was quite different than myself."

"Nevertheless, we became the best of friends."

"We mostly hung out at my place, listening to Western German radio -"

"- and making stupid movies."

Oh shit!

"And the GDR and I were still at odds."

"I had a different perception of freedom."

"I had a different perception of life."

"I had a different perception of everything."

"Then came the autumn of 1989."

"Great political upheavals were in progress."

"And the whole world was watching the GDR."

"And David Haselhoff brought down the Berlin Wall."

* Hasselhoff: "Looking for Freedom". *

And what now?

I'm going to San Francisco.

What are you going to do in San Francisco?

I want to see the Golden Gate Bridge. What?

I want to see the Golden Gate Bridge. What?

It's the westernmost point in the world.

After that, there's only water. And Asia.

"For 23 years, the westernmost point I had visited was Wernigerode."

"All of a sudden, I realized:"

"There's no place in the whole world, that I would rather see -"

"- than the Golden Gate Bridge, the westernmost point in the world."

"The place where I would be the furthest removed from the DDR." Okay!

I'm coming with.

My father said: You guys are crazy.

And my mother said: You can't even speak English.

"Moreover, my father hinted at his skepticism."

That's a total load of shit!

"For our entire lives we had lived in the same country."

"Now we could finally go, wherever we wanted."

"Unfortunately, we didn't have enough money for 2 tickets to San Francisco."

"Rather, only for New York."

"And so, we began our journey."

"With 55 dollars in the bag, a pullover, 3 pairs of briefs, -"

"- socks and soap."

"And our perfect English."

Friendship! Friendship!

Madness, dude! Madness!

Next!

Paperwork.

Friendship! Friendship!

Germany, huh?

Yes. Yes.

- You're a Nazi. - No, no, no.

No Nazi. We are communists, you know?

Free communists, yes? Free! Frei!

Communists!

Yeah, screw the communists!

Ill-conceived, yeah?

Greg!

Shouldn't we explain instead?

Can you not just shut up?

You sure? I'm sure!

- Um, sorry, mister officer, this is, you know -

- we do films... - Back against the wall!

- Movies, you know? Money, money, money... - Back against the wall!!!

Face the wall!!!

Welcome to America.

Did you see how tall the buildings are here?

What do they do when the elevator is out of service?

Take the stairs. It's only 50 floors!

It'd be night before you finished. Yeah, for you maybe.

Hey, look here! This guy is skating here!

You're daring, you bird!

Hello! Hello! How are you, Sir?

Good, fine! Fine, good! Thank you!

New York is a great city and...

Veit! He only means to say hello! That means hello! Ah!

2 Tickets San Francisco.

That'll be $320

Ach! Ah!

320 Dollars!

Okay! Here!

We don't have anymore. That's all.

55 Dollars?!

That's two tickets to New Jersey.

"New Jersey"? Okay!

Where New Jersey?

New Jersey.

New York. New Jersey.

Sorry, guys.

Shit!

Shit! Shit! New Jersey.

Thank you!

We'll just show our films, until we have enough.

San Francisco won't get away from us.

I'm hungry again, for a hotdog.

I know that, right now, what I want to eat for the rest of my life.

Isn't that great? Hmm?

You alright?

Yeah, sure!

Look here! Our first American fan.

Stupid dancers! They're just standing there.

And we only get one homeless guy. Man!

What would happen if we showed them the film we made of our homeland?

No one would be interested in a documentary.

About our shit homeland?

We just need to find a better place to show it.

Yeah! In restaurants or something. Where people don't have anything -

- better to do than watch the move.

Exactly! Yeah, and better advertising.

"The filmmaker" lives for the art of making films...

... ging: "go". It's difficult!

Man! How do you say prison?

Here! What's that?

Back home I wrote down everything we could possibly need to say.

Anything that we might need.

I'm impressed, Mr. Kleeberg. Thanks, Mr. Jagoda!

"You have beautiful eyes". "You have beautiful eyes".

It's possible you could need that. Oh, look here!

"Your eyes shine like the stars over X."

Yeah! Where X stands for whatever state we're in.

"Don't you want to take off your shirt?"

"I'm a lonely communist, on the search for love."

Yeah, I think it's cool.

Here: "I want to fuck you in the ass."

I wrote that down? Show me!

No, you didn't. But you believed me there for a second.

Woah! Look here! Central Park.

Crazy! Nuts!

Got some money?

Ah, no - no money, sorry.

But... here! I have crackers.

Hello? Hey dude!

Those are my crackers.

You can't just... Fine, take the crackers! Shit!

Did you bring more crackers with?

"San Francisco".

What?

Dude! It's so cold!

Give it here! What's that?

What is that? It's my stuff. I thought:

Your father was dead.

Yeah. He is. And from who are the postcards?

Hey, dude! You have a father.

You can't just tell me, that he's dead.

I'm your best friend. I'm your best friend! Leave it alone! You lied to me.

For 10 years. Why didn't you say anything?

Because I wanted to forget about him!

Shit! My father left us.

When I was 12. Since then, I haven't heard anything from him.

But every year, on my birthday he sends me a postcard from San Francisco.

Every year!

Postmarked on my birthday.

My birthday is in 2.5 weeks. I need to be there.

I need to see him. You understand?

I want to wait in front of the post office, where -

- he sends these from That's your plan?

Yeah. You've been lying to me this entire time.

And then have such a shit plan.

I don't have any other. When were you going to tell me?

When we got to San Francisco? I don't know.

Man! Forget it!

Tom! I was scared, -

- that you wouldn't have come otherwise!

It's so damned cold here.

I saw something over there, that looked warm.

But it's no hotel.

* A woman moans with lust. *

Man! I just don't know what to say to you.

I'm sorry.

Could we hitchhike?

We could do that in 2.5 weeks.

Hey? We can tackle that.

2.5 weeks.

Come with, Tom!