Changing Skins (1997)

• 75%
• 1997
• Comedy
• Andreas Dresen
• Susanne Bormann
• Fabian Busch
• Otto Mellies

Anna and Marcus are in the same class and there are just some weeks left before they get their leaving certification and with it the permission to study. While Marcus is secretly in love with Anna, she begins an affair with Randy, a rock singer. One day, Anna brings some rock records to school which at that time were forbidden in Eastern Germany. The school's principal discovers this and disqualifies Anna both from school as well as from her entrance to unviersity. Marcus gets a disqualification from university too, because he showed around a picture of a Western German terrorist couple. Inspired by the deeds of the terrorist couple and with nothing to lose Anna and Marcus cooperate and hijak their prinicpal - in order to get all the permissions back and Anna back to school. They hide them in Anna's grandmother's house, while granny is in hospital. Everything works well ... until grandma comes back earlier... It's a movie which portrays the different lives of young people in Eastern Germany before the wall was broken down. Great and funny dialogues, interesting turning points, very talented young actors and good music make this movie a remarkable experience. The title comes from a song performed by Randy in the movie, but originally being performed by the "forbidden" group - the record that Anna brought to school. Ironically this story is true - the group "Renft" was really forbidden at that time, because they said what they wanted to say - even if it was forbidden. I think, the title speaks for itself - it means "out of the skin".