From one of Berlin’s leading directors comes COUNTDOWN, a fascinating chronicle of the divided Germany’s final days. Ulrike Ottinger’s documentary sharply observes the historic transformations taking place -- and what remains unchanged and unaffected by the unification process. Shot over the ten-day period leading to the union of the two currencies on July 1, 1990, the film’s ten episodes record the people and streets of East and West Berlin. Evoking the melancholy of Walter Benjamin’s writing and the same barbed sense of social criticism, this film memoir visits monuments such as the Reichstag, the “death strip” and Jewish cemeteries. Pockets of Berlin ignored by the other cameras are revealed: tavern workers, souvenir vendors, East German gays demonstrating for the first time in Alexanderplatz and the Turkish and Rumanian immigrants who remain on the periphery. What counts and what is counted out? Ottinger recounts the fanfare from an insider’s perspective with subtle irony and humor.