SAT. OCT 19, 2013 – 7.00 PM

Directed by Jan Ole Gerster

Niko is in his late 20s and recently dropped out of college. He lives for the moment, drifting sleeplessly through the streets of Berlin, marvelling at the people around him. With a quiet curiosity, he observes how they cope with everyday life while failing to notice how he himself is becoming an outsider. But, one day, everything changes, and Niko is forced to confront the consequences of his inaction. His girlfriend ends their relationship, his father cuts off his allowance and a psychiatrist diagnoses him with an ‘emotional imbalance’. Meanwhile a peculiar beauty from his past confronts him with the emotional wounds he inflicted, his new neighbor – accompanied by meatballs and Schnapps – pours his heart out and, throughout the city, there doesn’t seem to be a single cup of ‘normal’ coffee available.

“Do you know the feeling when people around you seem to behave strangely? And the longer you think about it, the more it dawns on you that it’s not other people who are strange, but yourself?” Niko’s epiphany, however, is immediately, abruptly interrupted when he’s forced to stand up to a rowdy gang of teenagers, and a night-time encounter with an old man not only personifies his own loneliness but also demonstrates how the city’s history continues to assert itself.

Awards Best Screenplay Award Munich 2012, Best Film & Audience Award, Seymour Cassel Award Oldenburg 2012, Special Mention for director Jan Ole Gerster Zurich 2012, Best Director, FIPRESCI Jury Award & Fedeora Jury Award Bratislava 2012, Red Hering Award & Audience Award Tallinn 2012, Bavarian Film Prize 2012 (Best Actor: Tom Schilling & Best Screenplay), Special Jury Prize and Audience Award Angers 2013, Focus Fox Grand Prix Sofia 2013, German Film Awards 2013 (Best Film: Gold, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Score)

The movie was re-released under the title A COFFEE IN BERLIN.