Goethe-Kino Cinema: Two to One by Natja Brunckhorst

Halberstadt in eastern Germany, summer 1990. The border between East and West has been open for half a year. The currency union is in full swing, and citizens of the GDR have to exchange their money for West German marks. Wages and salaries, pensions, and rents are converted at a 1:1 rate, while savings over 6,000 marks are exchanged at a 2:1 rate. But what happens to all the East German money?
As Maren, Robert, and Volker find out, it is being transported lorry by lorry to a mine not far from Halberstadt. The three grew up here. Robert married Maren, and after the border opened, Volker tried his luck in the West. But now he’s back—and like his two old friends, he’s unemployed. So, there is time to devise a plan to make a profit from the East German money left to rot underground. Family and friends are recruited for the scheme as things have to move fast: only a few days remain until the 6th of July 1990, the deadline for all currency exchanges.

With Two to One, director Natja Brunckhorst—herself from the West and known for her leading role in the film Christiane F. – We Children from Bahnhof Zoo—tells, in a humorous way, the story of a small act of resistance against the unstoppable takeover by capitalism. For this, she brought together a wonderful ensemble, including many actors who were born in the former GDR and who clearly enjoy bringing this heist to life.
Its story is inspired by real break-ins at the underground storage site, which, however, took place much later. Starting in 2002, the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau ordered the destruction of the “treasure of Halberstadt.” After the banknotes were cleaned underground of sand and stones, a total of 298 lorry loads of GDR banknotes ended up in a waste incineration plant.

Germany 2024, colour, 116mins. With English subtitles.
Written and directed by Natja Brunckhorst. With Sandra Hüller, Max Riemelt, Ronald Zehrfeld, Ursula Werner, Peter Kurth, Martin Brambach

About Natja Brunckhorst

Natja Brunckhorst was born on September 26, 1966, in (West) Berlin. She came to acting purely by chance when, at the age of 13, she was discovered in her schoolyard and eventually cast in the title role of Christiane F. – We Children from Bahnhof Zoo. The film was released in cinemas in 1981. The following year, she appeared in a small role in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Querelle. After spending several years in the United Kingdom and a year in Paris, she returned to Germany in 1987, where she attended the Bochum Drama School until 1991. During this time, she appeared in, among other things, Dominik Graf’s TV film about friendship, Tiger, Lion, Panther (1989), in a leading role as a feminist bookseller. She also played a leading role in Ralf Huettner’s horror film Babylon – In Bed with the Devil (1992).

In 1993/1994, Brunckhorst temporarily withdrew from acting due to a cancer diagnosis. In the following years, she appeared in several television productions as well as films for the cinema, including Tom Tykwer’s The Princess and the Warrior (2000). In 1997, Natja Brunckhorst also began working as a screenwriter. For her screenplay As White as in Snow (Wie Feuer und Flamme, 2001, directed by Connie Walther), an autobiographically inspired coming-of-age story, she received the German Film Award. In the same year, Brunckhorst directed her first short film, the love story La Mer. In 2003, she became one of the founding members of the German Film Academy.

As an actress, Brunckhorst has since appeared only sporadically, for example in Jessica Krummacher’s Totem, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2011. As a writer, she penned two Berlin episodes of the TV series Tatort as well as an episode of Polizeiruf 110.
In 2017, the youth film Mountain Miracle – An Unexpected Friendship (Amelie Rennt), written by Brunckhorst, was released in cinemas. At the 2017 Goldener Spatz Festival, Brunckhorst and director Tobias Wiemann received the award for Best German-Language Feature Film for Children.

Natja Brunckhorst made her feature-length directorial debut with the relationship drama Everything in Best Order (Alles in bester Ordnung, 2021). At the Festival of German Film in Ludwigshafen, she received the Best Director Award for this film. With the post-reunification tragicomedy Two to One (Zwei zu Eins), Brunckhorst presented her second feature film as both writer and director at the Munich Film Festival in 2024.

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