Arquivo / 49ª mostra

Schultze is living in a small town in East Germany. His life alternates between working in a mine and visits to the local pub, interspersed with gardening, polkas, and fishing. Suddenly, he and some of his friends are retired prematurely. Half lost at first, with a lot of time without anything to do, Schultze discovers a new way to play the accordion that is not very different from the traditional polkas he listens to: zydeco, the music played by the creoles in Louisianna, in the U.S. He then decides to visit the new world. In Texas, he will have to cope with the swamps, the police, Czech musicians and the French-speaking inhabitants. The film was awarded the special prize for Best Director in the parallel exhibition of the Venice Film Festival, 2003.