1st of May: All Belongs to You 2008

Three stories unfold across a single day in Berlin, each tracing a different path into the May Day chaos: Uwe, Benjamin Höppner the provincial police officer, is deployed to the city to help crowd-control the demonstrations, but his private life is strained by a betrayal at home. He wades into the street action and ends up in the line of fire when a water cannon hits the crowd and leaves him with a broken nose.

Jacob, Jacob Matschenz and Pelle, Ludwig Trepte — two middle-class youths from Minden — travel to Berlin hoping for something dramatic; they oscillate between being curious tourists and potential rioters. Their attempt to score drugs proves more difficult than expected, turning their excursion into a test of nerve and judgment.

Yavuz, Cemal Subasi is an eleven-year-old boy determined to grow up quickly, to prove his masculinity, and to take part in May Day turmoil with his brother. On his path through the chaos he meets an older man, Harry, Peter Kurth, and the two strike up a dynamic where the elder man looks after him while they build a street barricade together. Harry’s protective instincts grow as the day unfolds.

By nightfall, the stories intersect in a Kreuzberg hospital, where the day’s events bind these disparate lives in a shared moment of vulnerability and resilience. The film offers a nuanced look at a city that is vibrant and chaotic, once torn between innocence and experience, as mayhem and humanity collide in a single day.