by Robert Thalheim
Summer 1988 – a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Twin sisters Doreen and Isabelle understand each other perfectly – both in their private lives and as up-and-coming rowers hoping for a future in the GDR national team. This summer the two travel abroad for the first time – to Hungary, and a training camp on the banks of Lake Balaton. Here they discover West German boys in the form of Arne and Nico, who have travelled east in their VW Beatle on vacation. Despite a curfew, the two young women manage to sneak out of the camp to meet their new acquaintances, and a forbidden summer romance soon develops between Doreen and Arne. As Isabelle concentrates on her training, Doreen finds herself increasingly drawn by the seductive ‘Westwind’.