At its heart is a place: a house on a lake near Berlin, home to three families from the 1930s to the fall of the Wall. A Jewish family is forced to sell; an architect builds his Bauhaus dream and chases it again in the GDR; a writer couple returns from Soviet exile. Twelve people dream of a home while world history refuses to spare their small shore. Adapting Jenny Erpenbeck's novel, Palme d'Or winner Volker Schlöndorff crafts a textured, compassionate epic with Lars Eidinger and Martina Gedeck that premiered in Cannes, a fitting late career triumph.