Shores of Hope pairs actors August Diehl (The Counterfeiters) and Alexander Fehling from If Not Us, Who? (PSIFF 2012) and Inglorious Bastards as two young dockworkers, Conny and Andreas, in East Germany in the early 1980s. The two have worked side-by-side for years, daydreaming about a day when one of the ships will bring them to freedom. As fate would have it, Conny and Andi find themselves in separate but equally desperate positions: Conny is imprisoned after trying to escape with his Vietnamese lover while Andreas is compelled to spy for the Stasi. The two friends fight turn after vicious turn for their freedom, not knowing if they will be free.
Bolstered by a fervent score and strong performances, Director Toke Constantin Hebbeln’s sophomore feature is unflinching in its portrayal of two men pushed to their moral and physical limits.