Der Rote Kakadu (2006)

Young Siggi is a gifted artist and wants to study stage design at the Leipzig Theatre Academy. To do so, in the spring of 1961—four months before the Berlin Wall is built—he comes to Dresden to gain his first experience at the Dresden State Theatre. He lives with his aunt Hedy, who also works there as an opera singer. He meets the poet Luise and her husband Wolle, who tell him about the fashionable dance club “Roter Kakadu” (“Red Cockatoo”). Located in the villa district of Weißer Hirsch on the Elbe slopes, the club is a gathering place for Dresden’s young rock ’n’ roll fans. Siggi really likes it there. He sells one of his aunt’s Meissen porcelain monkeys in West Berlin, securing himself financially. Wolle is arrested by the Stasi. While Wolle is in prison, Siggi has Luise’s poems printed. She is moved when she holds the book in her hands, but fears for her freedom, as well as for Siggi’s and Wolle’s. In fact, all three are arrested and put on trial. Siggi is acquitted, even though he has refused to let himself be used as an instrument; nevertheless, he is supposed to serve the Stasi as an unwilling informant about the subversive activities and offenses of his relatives and friends. After Wolle and Luise are sentenced, they suspect betrayal. Wolle tries to escape from the courthouse and is shot. Shortly afterward, construction of the Berlin Wall begins. After Siggi convinces Luise that he is innocent, he wants to flee to the West with her. Siggi sets off at once. Luise plans to follow him later, once she gets Wolle out; however, she never makes it.