Westwind

In 1988, two inseparable twin sisters from DDR, Isabel and Doreen, travel outside the country for the first time. They go to the sports camp on the bank of Lake Balaton in the socialist Hungary, then a part of the Soviet block. The sisters accept a lift from two young men from Hamburg in Western Germany, and get castigated by their supervisor for communicating with "the enemy". One of the sisters gets romantically involved with one of the men. Will she abscond with him or will she stay?

Director Robert Thalheim did a great job making the film very watchable and creating tension towards the end of the film. The two actresses portraying the two sisters, Friederike Becht (who appeared in "The Reader") and Luise Heyer in her first role, were terrific. I also liked Hans-Uwe Bauer as the supervisor; his take on this character is very believable.

All in all, this is a great little film about the divided nation, or, if you prefer, about "the German - German problem", as the Germans themselves like to call it. Whichever countries the Soviets laid their hands on, they spread there the ideology of hate indoctrinating children with the views that all the westerners are their enemies. And this is not very different from the state ideology of Putin's Russia that brings chaos and destruction to the neighbouring countries.