Synopsis
Germany in the 70s, a country that lives on in the memory of Rita Vogt as the most exciting time of her life. Together with her comrades she robs a bank. But they're not armed robbers - motivated by slogans such as "Ownership is theft and "Down with Capitalism, they're just "liberating the money". Rita believes in a just world, one that must be built with violence if need be. Her emotions are fired by her sense of justice, and her love for their charismatic leader Andi.Rita is traveling from Beirut and is passing in transit through East Berlin. When her pistol is discovered in the baggage check, she makes her first acquaintance with the East German security system in the person of Stasi officer Erwin Hull. He lets her pass, but it is clear that he is going to keep an eye on her. Back in West Berlin, Rita, Friederike and Klatte are attempting to free Andi from jail. But plans go awry when Friederike panics and kills a guard. They contact Hull who helps them escape, first to Beirut and ultimately to Paris.
Years pass. Deadend political discussions and Andi's affaire with Anna are tearing at Rita's nerves. When she is stopped for a traffic violation, she tries to flee on her motorbike. In the chase, she kills the policeman. Rita escapes to East Berlin to ask the East Germans to arrange asylum for her and her disheartened comrades in some Third World country. But her plea falls on deaf ears. The Stasi will arrange to shelter them, but only if they
remain in East Germany under their watchful eye. Some elect to take their chances in the West, but Rita decides for herself, and against Andi - she will give the "other Germany" a try.
Rita Vogt receives her "legend", she is now Susanne Schmidt, a factory worker. She finds quite a different reality than she expected, mostly in the person of her new friend Tatjana. Tatjana is carrying on her own personal rebellion against the rigid little world around her, the same world on which Rita is hanging her new hopes. While Rita wants to fit in, Tatanja wants to get out, even if it's only with the help of a bottle of vodka stolen from the supermarket. The two woman form an ever deepening friendship, until Rita sees a news report on West TV - Andi has been shot in a skirmish on the German/French border. Their wanted posters are shown in the broadcast, hers included. Rita's cover is blown. Within a day, she is gone. Her farewell to Tatjani is yet another deception. Does she suspect Rita's true story?
Erwin Hull arranges Rita's next life. This time her "legend" is Sabine Walter who works in the child care department of a large company. She is sent with a group of the workers' children to a summer camp at the sea shore. This is the first time she has been to the Baltic Sea and, for the first time in years of running, she is able to stop and let her worries fall away. Rita is happy here and can't understand why people are trying to escape this nice little country she has adopted. Jochen, a physics student working in the camp as a life guard, shares her happiness. He is the first man in years who sees her just as a woman, and who, she feels, understands her. Their summer flirtation turns into love.
One afternoon, a choir is singing on the Promenade and suddenly a dark cloud appears when Rita notices her old comrade from the terrorist days, Friederike, amongst the singers. Friederike, once the daughter of a good family, had also gone underground in East Germany and now she's living a small town life with a husband and a child - far from happy.
The summer is over and no one the wiser that this is the last summer East Germany will ever have. Jochen pays Rita a surprise visit and proposes marriage. He has been offered a very attractive post in a research institute in Moscow and wants to take her with him. Rita loves him and the thought of being "the mother of his children" is as comforting as it is strange. Maybe now she has a real hope for a normal life. Hull, however, is not at all happy about the idea. Her past and Jochen's future is not a good mix, allowing her to go to Moscow way oversteps his authority. She's becoming increasingly harder to protect.
Testing the limits of her love, Rita teils Jochen the truth about herself and her terrorist past. But the test fails and she finds herself once more alone. Meanwhile, Tatjana has been arrested because she knows too much about Rita and refuses to co-operate with Hull. And now it's winter 1989 and the Berlin Wall has come down.
Friederike is arrested by the police. Rita is afraid she will be next and fears she will be handed over to the West German authorities. One last time she goes on the run. She steals a motorcycle, but when she is stopped at a border check, she steps on the gas and tries to smash through the barrier. In the end, she has become the last person killed by an East German machinegun.
Everything is the way it was, but not exactly the way it happened.
