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The unborn child of Mamlakat (Khamatova) is telling her story. She is 17, beautiful and vivacious, and dreaming secretly of becoming an actress. She lives with her father and brother (Bleibtreu) in a small village in Central Asia. One night she is seduced by an actor from a traveling troupe, who poses as a friend of Tom Cruise, and makes her pregnant. She tries to abort, but her father and brother become determined to find the seducer, setting in motion a cascade of comic adventures.

Life is treating self-confident and open-minded Max very well. As the first born of a wealthy Jewish family, he doesn't need to worry about money. He loves his girlfriend and can imagine sharing his life with her. Everything could easily just continue the way it is, if it weren't for his sudden doubts, diffused emotions of inner emptiness, and the urge for change. His father owns Supertex, a discount textile company. When a dramatic accident befalls the family, Max and his two brothers must change their plans for the future...

In Hamburg, always within reach of government officials, immigrants try to make their way. Shezad, a Pakistani in his early 20s, lives in a small hotel run by the shady Herder. The hotel is a virtual United Nations. Shezad tries to help an older friend, Rashid, with his amnesty claim. When it fails, Herder offers to smuggle Rashid into the US for a large fee. Herder also gets Shezad a job in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant, where he befriends Xiao, a waiter. Xiao wants to open his own restaurant; they save enough to do so, mostly through Shezad's boldness. Because Shezad is the better cook, they serve Pakistani food. Through friendship, is economic success at hand?

"Bye Bye America" is the story of an unusual journey, generated from discussions director Jan Schütte had with émigrés he met while walking along the boardwalk in Brighton Beach. The film depicts characters whose fate is to search for a homeland, with no great fuss about it but with laconic humour and an often fairy-tale ambience. Isaak, his friend Moshe, and Moshe's wife, Genovefa, leave New York and set off for Poland. The three of them are all in the same boat, get stranded in Germany, celebrate Christmas in Berlin, and finally end up in Poland...

It is one of the last days of an exceptionally hot summer in 1956. Bertolt Brecht (Bierbichler) is about to leave his lakeside house among the tall birches in Brandenburg to return to Berlin for the upcoming theater season. Most of the women in his life are there: his wife, Helene Weigel (Bleibtreu); his daughter, Barbara; his old lover Ruth Berlau; his latest flame, the actress Käthe Reichel; and sensuous Isot Kilian, whose affections and body he shares with the rebel political activist Wolfgang Harich. The friends and lovers swim, write, eat, drink, and philosophize about art, politics, and life as the Stasi lurks all the while on the sidelines, waiting. The serenity of the country on this summer day stands in marked contrast to the storm of jealousy and egomania, betrayal and dashed hopes at whose center Brecht is trapped, struggling to make plans for a future that fate will end only days later. A brilliant ensemble cast and music by John Cale complement this fascinating portrait of one of Germany's leading modern artists.

Munich, Germany. Homeless people live under bridges, in boxes, in the subway. A life that is hard but manageable for those who do not want to or who cannot leave. Hagen Trinker, still quite young and definitely not out of possibilities to give his life a meaning, meets Judith. She is 15 and decided to quit home as she had a fight with her parents. Hagen has a crush on her but also wants to send her back into a life without a daily struggle for living. When she also falls in love with him, he takes this present gratefully. But their happiness is over as quickly as it started. Only that Hagen now has the will to do something with his life again.

Before Ernst Winckelmann, a sales representative for hair products, calls on hairdressing salons and chemist's shops, he rehearses what he intends to say, shakes the dandruff from his hair and slips into an innocuous pair of shoes. None of this helps. Winkelmann is no sales talent and his product is a failure. Meanwhile, in a small corner pub in the Barmbek district of Hamburg, Winkelmann's young girlfriend Aline uses some firm but gentle persuasion to make the last customer leave. Not much doing tonight. During the day, Rüdiger the barman, pulls most of the beers for the landlord, Aline's father, who survives on memories of good times at Miami Beach...