Die Taube auf dem Dach (2010)

A construction site in the south of the GDR: Young Mecklenburger Linda Heinrichs works here, where apartment blocks are to be built, as a site manager. She meets two men who could hardly be more different. Daniel, a student, is spontaneous; he takes her dancing and, while they are there, unexpectedly collects donations for Vietnam. His interest in space travel and the future is repeatedly addressed in the film; the opening credits already show a rocket taking off. Construction foreman Hans Böwe, by contrast, is forever restless. He has worked on construction projects in many parts of the GDR, but has never really felt at home anywhere. Linda spends time with both men, but confidently refuses to choose between them. The film consists of impressions from Linda’s life and the lives of her colleagues, often only loosely connected; some of them share cramped living quarters. Daniel, for example, shares accommodation with a Lebanese man whose stories about the seaside rock “Nest of Doves,” a meeting place for lovers in Beirut, offer a second possible explanation for the film’s title. The first association is with the saying “Better a sparrow in the hand than a dove on the roof,” which alludes to Linda’s love triangle, though the film never makes this explicit. A linear plot is only just discernible. Hans Böwe does propose marriage to Linda and criticizes her life, which is focused solely on work—but Linda does not accept his proposal, even though she remains interested in Böwe. His occasional escapes into alcohol do prompt Linda to reflect on her own life—will she end up like Böwe?—and on the meaning of happiness and love in the reality of the present. Daniel, whose name was once discussed as a possible title for the film, also continues to court Linda. As the film progresses, however, neither a decision by Linda in favor of one of the men nor any other resolution to the dilemma emerges.