Shortly after German reunification, three residents of a quiet area north of Berlin talk about their plans and attempts at new economic beginnings amid the changes brought by the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Christian Petzold’s second film is his only documentary thus far, made with the help of fellow “Berlin School” auteur Thomas Arslan. Interviewing residents of former East Germany about economic change, the director probes a subject that would serve as an undercurrent to his later genre masterpieces.