Thelma and Louise–type pair rob banks and flaunt the authority of their newly minted nation; in Andreas Dresen’s Silent Country, a novice theater director tries to mount a production of Waiting for Godot amidst the real-life drama of unification; Leipzig in the Fall documents the university city’s 1989 pro-democracy protests. Serious and ridiculous, “Wende Flicks” goes beyond victor-on-vanquished voyeurism (The Lives of Others, anyone?) to offer a bird’s-eye view of the end of one country and the beginning of another. It’s enough to make Reaganites want to rebuild that Wall—just so they can tear it down all over again.

The series runs Oct. 5–Nov. 30 at Goethe-Institut Washington, GoetheForum. For full listings, visit goethe.de.