Viktoria Schubert

Everyone can see that the Slupetzkis live in luxury. What their neighbors, the Taubers, don't see is that they are broke. So the Slupetzkis only pretend to go on their ostentatiously announced prestigious vacation and instead hide in their villa. But there's something they don't know: their daughter Diana is using the seemingly empty house to spend the holidays with her new boyfriend, Tomek, an Eastern European car mechanic, doing whatever she wants. Unfortunately for Diana's parents, there's nothing they can do about their daughter's plans, because otherwise their cover would be blown.

The Slupetzkis are completely impoverished—their former neighbors, the Taubers, have become rich through inheritance. The Slupetzkis earn the money for their economic fresh start in a posh wellness hotel. When the Taubers unexpectedly show up, honor demands that they conceal this sad truth by any means necessary. From now on, they also pretend to be hotel guests, while continuing to toil as chambermaids and porters.

Requiem for Dominic powerfully portrayed the upheaval in that liminal space between revolution and order. This drama is captured partly on film, partly on video adding to the gritty reality of the time, place and events as they were unfolding in Eastern Europe as the "Iron Curtain" collapsed.