An older man with a briefcase enters a platform: Potsdam West. A sign names the destination: Potsdam Hbf. A second man reads Neues Deutschland. The view of the station clock shows both hands at zero: It is stopped. A young girl looks suspicious and impatient, because an exam appointment is waiting, as she says. The man says: “It’s not coming yet ... The transit from West Berlin has to go through first.” In the sky, migratory birds can be heard. The conductor, who is changing the sign on which Paris is now the destination, serves hot tea. – Here we recognize the satirical impulse and/or the longing at the latest.

A punk struggles with a jammed ticket machine, which eventually spits something out. Another man in a beret types an entry on his travel typewriter. Finally, the train car arrives: Departure. And the hand of the clock jumps forward. The man now leaves the station, enters a cinema, and inserts a film in the projection booth. He watches sadly as the celluloid runs through the projector. How and when will the desire for a different reality be fulfilled?

This masterfully told episode in 18 minutes could also be a Chekhov novella that Wes Anderson has filmed. Here it becomes a final song for a declining state.