Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.) is a backyard-singer in Berlin and just released from prison for minor crimes committed under influence of alcohol. Nevertheless, his first walk leads him back to his regular inn. There, he meets the prostitute Eva (an absolutely gorgeous Eva Mattes). She wants to get away from her pimp, and Bruno invites her to stay in his apartment that his old neighbor, Herr Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz) has kept for him, as well as the Brave Beo (played by himself), who is also happy to see Bruno again. But it takes only a short time and Eva's pimp (played by the unforgettable Prince Wilhelm von Homburg), assisted by another "souteneur" (Burkhard Driest) finds her. They devastate Bruno's apartment and beat both Eva and Bruno up. Meanwhile, the post has brought Herrn Scheitz an invitation to live with his cousin in Railroad Flats, Wisconsin. Eva gets the money through prostitution. The first bad experience for this trio happens at the customs: "What a land is this, where a beo is confiscated?" Bruno comments. Arrived in Winsconsin, they buy a mobile home. Bruno finds work as a mechanic, Eva as a server, and the old Herr Scheitz is occupied with his researches in mesmerism. However, soon after, they cannot pay anymore their rates for the house and the furnishing. More and more frequently, a bank clerk visits them. For Bruno, the European, there is an exorbitant difference in the "nice" American behavior of the clerk on the one side and his merciless demand for money on the other side. Bruno says: "In the children's home where I grew up, they used to torment us children physically, but here, in America, they torment us psychologically, and this is much, much worse". Finally, the bank takes the home away, Eva elopes with two truckers, and Bruno and Herr Scheitz are left without house and money. They plan to rob the bank that has taken their home away. However, when they arrive at the bank, it is closed, and so they decide to rob a hairdresser's salon instead. With the little money robbed, they go and buy food just in the grocery-store on the other side of the street. While Bruno looks for a turkey, the police arrive and arrest Herr Scheitz. Bruno hides in the store, until they are gone, and, now left totally alone with himself, he drives through the snow on the interstate in direction of North Carolina and ends up in the Cherokee Indian Reservation. What happens then, I do not tell here, although this comment contains the basic lines of the story and thus necessarily many spoilers. I don't think that any other movie has such a truly original, yet both tragic and surreal end in the best sense of these words. I do not think much of Werner Herzog's work, except his Kinski-movies on reasons that are not to be discussed here -, but I still consider this movie one of the best of the approximately 5'000 movies I have seen up to now. As a matter of fact, the "Stroszek" figures even in my personal "Top-10-Movies-List".
