Alles, was man braucht

What do we need for a good life? Not much, says Knut Thomsen. Something to eat, something to drink, and the freedom to take time for our own activities.

Knut and his wife Berit have opened a village store: a 40-square-meter universe of regional vegetables, carefully arranged shelves, chitchat, and cohesion. And one of many islands in a sea of discounters that have displaced the small rural stores almost everywhere.

The film travels across northern and eastern German villages and tells the story of very different people who seek their opportunities or dare to do something new in this vacuum of lost traditions: a former store manager saves her "Konsum" through time, a cook seeks fulfillment in a small food market, a farm community develops an organic store and the utopia of a just world on an old agricultural production cooperative, a mayor builds a vending machine, and a supermarket owner takes care of the Hallig people in the Wadden Sea.

Even when the pandemic brings normal everyday life to a standstill, they manage to preserve the essence of their work: the appreciation of things and the sweepingly practiced care for other people.

Source: 55th Hof International Film Festival