West Berlin becomes a character in this black-and-white, eighties version of a Berlin city symphony. In the days just before Christmas, the town is dominated by grey tones and muffled sounds, which Thorsten Näter renders in a uniquely captivating experiment in narrative. (The film is virtually without dialogue.) His protagonists are Stefan, a hospital worker who has just lost his job, and Johanna, a nurse whose boyfriend has just left her. Each seeking solace in the anonymity of the pre-Christmas crowds, they cross paths, unknowingly, countless times throughout the day. The logistics of these missed encounters are as engrossing as the bizarre twists and turns in what may be a typical day for Stefan and Johanna, two decidedly distracted individuals who seem to attract the city's strangeness (captured in cinema verité). There is Stefan's surprising encounter with a subway cop, his futile attempts to meet women in an all-night coffee shop, his disastrous intervention in a street soccer game. There is Johanna's erotic encounter in a shopping mall, a walk in a wintry park, the ubiquitous brass band, and Santa Claus growing drunker and drunker as the day progresses. When the two finally "meet," it is in the most fitting way imaginable.