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Two men with checkered pasts search for a better future aboard a ship that's seen better days in this drama from Germany. Kowsky (Henning Peker) and Gero (Tom Jahn) once worked together in the Dresden shipyards, but after losing their jobs, they're not sure what to do next. While middle-aged Kowsky and Gero are hardly best friends, their similar circumstances bind them together, and when they get word that there's plenty of work in Hamburg, Kowsky commandeers an old boat and the pair head down the Elbe River, following the waters that once marked the border between East and West Germany in search of a better life. Before leaving, Gero tries to mend fences with his grown daughter Sara (Vilma Fischer), and upon arrival, Kowsky's reckless enthusiasm for gambling suggests the tentative partners will face many of the same problems in Hamburg that stalled their opportunities at home. Elbe (aka Down The River) was the first theatrical feature for director Marco Mittelstaedt.