Title: The Ballad from Wednesday to Thursday
Foreign Title: Die Ballade von Mittwoch auf Donnerstag
Year: 2026
Country: Germany
Language: In German with English subtitles
Director: Christoph Otto
Click here to see the cast and crew
The space between Wednesday and Thursday is the middle of the middle of the week.
As evening approaches, the middle people of a middle-sized town gather in cafés, pubs, espresso and hookah bars to drink and talk. Everything is on the table: green energy, race and immigration, local and world politics, caregiving and love.
As the alcohol flows, inhibitions fall and a mixture of ignorance, fear and racist ideas surfaces. None of the opinions are particularly original. They are a mixture of conspiracy theories, social anxieties, personal fears and half-baked ideas, old prejudices repackaged and amplified by social media.
Set in Cologne, Germany, the film could take place in almost any city in the Western world. We hardly get to know the protagonists. Their opinions often feel less like deeply held beliefs than things they have heard and simply repeated.
More than anything, they are afraid, they crave connections, they need to talk and be heard, (though not necessarily listened to). As one character says after being rejected by her party: “I just wanted to talk.” Eventually, the day came, and they all survived another night.
Gloomy, sober, realistic and at times funny, it is a sharp observation of contemporary Germany, beautifully shot and performed.
