NOTE: THIS FILM IS IN GERMAN WITH NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES OR DUBBING. In 1919, Esau (Ole Brandmeyer), roughly ten years old, moves to a small remote village on the German-Polish boarder with his two younger brothers and sister, parents and grandparents to start a bakery and general store. Fearing that if he misbehaves the locals will not frequent his family's establishment, our young hero goes out of his way to make friends and be polite. Yet, chaos surrounds him, a cane-wielding man his teacher, a wife and child beater his neighbor, an adulterer with a temper his father. Esau finds comfort from his harsh reality in his kind grandfather, an older girl he has a crush on and via writing. A based on fact story about the childhood of East German author Erwin Strittmatter. Recommended! Followed by Der Laden: Zweiter Teil.

Warning (rated NR): violence; adult themes; sexual themes; brief nudity.

1998; aka The Store; in German with NO SUBTITLES OR DUBBING; 90 minutes; Note: the print includes minor speckling; Ole Brandmeyer, Carmen-Maja Antoni, Martin Benrath, Dagmar Manzel, J?rg Sch?ttauf, Hermann Beyer, Oliver Br?cker, Heikko Deutschmann, Christian Doermer, Martina Gedeck, Cosma Shiva Hagen, Michael Hanemann, Deborah Kaufmann, Horst Krause, Hermann Lause, Tobias Nath, Ingo Naujoks, Nina Petri,Carola Regnier, Natalia W?rner, Mark Zak.