The heroine, would-be solo pop singer Sunny, is told by her ungallant MC that she is no Liza Minnelli; Cabaret fans might well incidentally recognise here the brusque German word “bumsen”. (The disillusioned communist East German character in Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Kairos is a big fan of Wolf.) Their brief relationship emboldens Sunny to try for a solo career, to break free from all these grotesque losers, the terrible band composed of slobbish guys with bad comb-overs who keep hitting on her. In striving for a glamorous solo career, is Sunny rejecting the collectivist ideals of the GDR in favour of the specious glamour of the capitalist west? The question is never asked explicitly, but – perhaps without really intending it – Wolf allows us to see the poignant ambition in every frame.