Standing in the Shadows

East Berlin, 1983. One dissident rock band. One plan to defect to the west. One traitor. Udo Dirkmeyer, the charismatic and feckless Mick Jagger of East Germany, is having a tough time of it. It’s hard enough being an outlaw rock star in the world’s harshest police state.

Udo Dirkmeyer, the charismatic and feckless Mick Jagger of East Germany, is having a tough time of it. It’s hard enough being an outlaw rock star in the world’s harshest police state. But his relationship with Gerda, the band’s beautiful lead singer, is going nowhere and his oldest friend, Thomas, has become a paranoid, alcoholic wreck. Worse still, his arch-rivals, the state-sponsored Poodles, are doing really well while Udo has been banned from every major venue in the entire country.

Smiling in the face of the constant surveillance and persecution from the notorious Stasi is proving exhausting. But then Udo discovers that one of his bandmates is an informer, intent on destroying him. It’s enough to tip even the eternally optimistic Udo over the edge. Just as his life is on the verge of falling apart, his band gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to escape to the West. Suddenly, his dreams of making it big in the free world have a chance of coming true. Udo is determined to escape and make it work but the secret police and his treacherous bandmate will not let him go that easily.