In the late 70s a young woman flees East Germany to build a new life in the West, but in the West Berlin refugee centre Nelly (Triebel) and her son Alexej (Göbel) encounter the very bureaucracy and intrusion they thought they’d left behind in the GDR. Nelly can only become a citizen, and hence eligible for a job, after collecting a series of stamps on her application card, each involving an invasive inspection or interview. Schwochow charts the dysfunction of his divided country through his heroine’s mental breakdown.