Thomas Kretschmann

Aged 19, he began a month-long trek from East to West Germany to escape Communism, during which he lost part of his finger to frostbite. He crossed 4 borders with nothing other than a passport and the equivalent of $100 in his possession.

Leaving [home] is kind of a strange thing - the world opens up but, at the same time, it gets smaller. The more you see of the world, the smaller it seems. After I did the film Stalingrado: A Batalha Final (1993), I left Germany, and I did a couple of films in France and lived there for about three years, and a couple of films in Italy, and lived there for two years. Then I came over here. The more you get familiar with different countries, the more you think, "Where am I going to live for the rest of my life?" You think, "OK, Germany sucks - don't want to live there; France, no; Italy - the food is nice, but I don't want to live there". In the end, you have nowhere to go anymore.