Berlin. Grisha, a Russian-German boy, fools around with a toygun. The longer he plays, the further he is thrust into an altered reality. The boundaries between the present and the past start to blur. Images from a bygone Berlin appear; streets and buildings still carry the memories of war. Suddenly, he is caught in a nightmare of another lifetime.

Nine young actors leave behind their daily lives in Berlin and travel to the country to audition for a summer theatre production to be performed in the ruins of an old church. A once-renowned Swiss director is using this week of rehearsals to find the lead for this production of “Hamlet”. The director is staying privately at the home of an old woman, but the actors are being put up at a run-down hotel with very thin walls.

While ageing border guard Alfred tries to save his now redundant border from demolition, Cupid's arrow strikes him. For over 30 years, border guard and passionate Verdi lover Alfred Birnbaum has been guarding a border in the idyllic no man's land between Germany and the Czech Republic. His only diversion is his daily encounter with the pretty Suzanne, who crosses the border every morning on her bicycle with a heavy sack of rice. When he hears the news that Europe is now opening its borders to the Czech Republic as part of the EU's eastward expansion, rendering him superfluous, he does everything he can to save "his" border.

The tusk from a mammoth and a whale skeleton are found in a grotesque mix of bricks and destruction - a zoological museum has been blown up. Images of the bisected building with all the scattered remains of stuffed animals are broadcast worldwide along with the statement sent out by the underground group of artists who claim responsibility: "This is not entertainment. It is not a political statement. It is not even news... This is art!"