Just finished watching this on ARD on August 7, 2021, a few days before the 60th anniversary of the division of Germany by a terrible wall. The decisions people had to make who were on that train! 3 1/2 hours to make a major decision as to how your life will be. You agonize along with the characters, feeling both with those who decide to leave the train and those who decide to continue back to home - a home that now has walls around it.

There are many mini-stories that are intertwined here, whiffs of war-time Germany, bits of lives already torn apart without the wall. Longing for a better life, finding it already in your heart.

It has such a real feeling to it, I want to know if it is based on true stories (other than that there was a train on August 13, 1961 from Munich to Berlin, Capital of the GDR). Probably not, but based on various stories people have told.

Gripping - a must see, if you are able to access it.