Hans Fallada

오토(브렌단 글린슨)와 안나(엠마 톰슨) 부부는 군에 입대한 외아들이 전사했다는 소식을 듣고 절망한다. 그 이후 그들이 선택한 행동은 나치와 전쟁에 대한 반대이다. 두 사람은 나치에 맞서 싸워야 한다는 내용을 담은 우편엽서를 공공장소에 놓고 오는 방식으로 저항의 씨앗을 퍼뜨리려고 한다. 나치의 비밀경찰 게쉬타포는 이 사건을 이데올로기를 따지지 않는 노련한 형사 에스체리치(다니엘 브륄)에게 맡긴다. 하지만 엽서가 200장이 넘어가도록 에스체리치는 범인을 잡지 못하고 당국자들에게 두드려맞는 수모까지 당한다. 그러나 오토의 치명적 실수가 에스체리치를 기다리고 있는데...

Hans Fallada tells in his published after the war novel "The drinker" the story of the agricultural wholesaler Erwin Sommer, who flees from his narrow bourgeois relations under the burdens of the new times in the kingdom of the king alcohol, whose liberty and independence promises prove a lie - the only truth of the alcohol. On behalf of the WDR television play Ulrich Plenzdorf has adapted Fallada's 1944/45 novel for a film adaptation by Tom Toelle with Harald Juhnke in the main role of Erwin Sommer.

When they start losing family members and neighbors due to WWII and the Nazi government's policies, a quiet married couple becomes disillusioned and begins spreading leaflets against the government - a crime punishable by death.

The tax officials Thiel and Kalübbe try to confiscate two oxen, but are prevented from doing so by protesting farmers led by the community leader Reimers. The assistant editor Tredup, who takes photos of the incident, is also in the thick of things.

The underage Rosemarie is still too young to run her inherited farm by herself; but she's more than aware that her foster father and the farm's administrator, the farmer Schlieker, is constantly skimming from the farm's finances to line his own pocket. To put an end to Schlieker's scheme, Rosemarie asks her godfather, Professor Kittgus, for help. But when Kittgus confronts Schlieker, the farmer not only proves to be unreasonable but also violent...

A young couple struggling against poverty must keep their marriage a secret in order for the husband to keep his job, as his boss doesn't like to hire married men.

First adaptation of Hans Fallada's novel of the same name.