In Dessau, Berlin, Paris and New York, Kurt Weill has left traces of a life dedicated to music.

The composer from Dessau was born a hundred years ago. In the film, a researcher, contemporary witnesses and musicians look for Weill's traces at the locations of his life: Dessau, Berlin, Paris and New York. Interpretations of the immortal Weill songs are performed by Milva, Blixa Bargeld, Kathrin Angerer, Udo Lindenberg, Stefanie Wüst, the Willem Breuker's collective and Jocelyn B. Smith.

In Dessau Milva reflects on the young Weill. In the lodging-house Haßfort, the first accommodation shared by Weill and Lenya, Stefanie Wüst talks about the different ideas about married life of both, which she concludes from their letters. In Louveciennes Willem Breuker expresses his view on the political Weill he is interested in, and Blixa Bargeld follows Weill's traces on Broadway. Quoting Weill's correspondence with Lenya, Bargeld comments on the chances of the composer in the music industry and his qualities.

As a composer of city music, Weill enjoys living in the country, from where he can see the towns. In Berlin he writes serious music that provides entertainment and in New York entertaining music with a serious intention. He was raised by his religious parents as a Jew. In Berlin his religion recedes into the background until the Nazis come to power. In New York Judaism finds an explicit expression in Weill's music again.

The Kiddush (a Jewish prayer song), written in New York in 1946, is a central issue of the film. Composing it four years before his death, Weill combines in it the music of his home with his early Jazz work and creates a unique provocative quality. Comments of contemporary witnesses, musicians, records and photographs, in part shown for the first time, examine the way the composer has worked, and what he lost and won in the turmoil of the 20th century.

Dessau, München, St. Petersburg, Jerusalem, Sao Paulo (comp.), Braunschweig (comp.), FIPA 2002 (comp.), Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken; Mumbai (comp.), Brasilia (comp.)

www.kurtweill.de