Synopsis

The Moon and other Lovers narrates the story of Hanna, a woman who will not take life’s set-backs and knock-downs sitting down. Instead, she takes them in her stride, picks herself up and marches onward. This is a woman who continually draws new courage from her inexhaustible will to live. Whatever losses and uncertainties come her way, she remains true to herself. When her former employer, a cosmetics shop, goes bust, Hanna simply helps herself to boxes full of perfume. As life and politics change around her, principally the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, Hanna battles on – through the new job at the petrol station, the steady advances from Knuti (Steffen Scheumann), right through to a trip to Turkey – until she meets the great love of her life. But Gansar (Birol Uenel) is not a free man. Hanna’s desperation leads to a very public scene and personal tragedy. Except, this is Hanna we are talking about. So she does what only she can. She picks herself up again, and starts over in new hope. As if The Moon and Other Lovers needed it, another thespian seal of approval comes from Birol Uenel, whose performance in Fatih Akin’s Berlin Golden Bear-winning Head-On still resonates.

Writer-director Bernd Boehlich studied directing at the film academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg, winning Adolf Grimme Awards for his Landschaft mit Dornen (1992) and Polizeiruf 110: Totes Gleis (1994). His previous film with Katharina Thalbach, Du bist nicht allein (2006), won the Audience Award at the Filmfest Schwerin.