Two countries, two towns and a river. The Oder doesn't only separate the German town of Frankfurt-on-Oder from the Polish city of Slubice; it marks the division between two very different worlds. All kinds of people -rich and poor- come here in search of happiness, often finding nothing but barriers of their own making. One such character is Andreas, a young cigarette smuggler whose unrequited love ends up turning him into a traitor. Another is Ingo, who is desperately trying to avert impending bankruptcy; yet another is Antoni, a Polish taxi driver urgently in need of money for his daughter's Communion dress. Distant Lights is a film about a group of people whom fate has thrown together for two days to steal, cheat, love, help, despair. Saddled with all their mistakes and weaknesses, but armed with good intentions and their supreme efforts, they try to get their bearings and find their feet in this confusing world - some in the light and others in darkness... Director Hans-Christian Schmid interrogates how rich the West is, how it closes itself off, who really gives us the right to use inhuman means to prevent people from living there. But the subject of relationships and the love stories of the characters are ultimately as important as the political content. The title means everything and nothing. Distant Lights can be the Communion candles in the church, the lights of Slubice which the refugees mistake for Berlin, or the lights of Beata's taxi. A play on words that can mean both hope and danger.
