Burhan Qurbani’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, which will have its world premiere in Competition at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival released the first English trailer via Screen Daily.

The film starring Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, and Richard Fouofié Djimeli is set in present-day Berlin, but draws on elements and characters from Alfred Döblin’s 1929 Weimer Republic era classic novel ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz.’

Berlin Alexanderplatz stars Welket Bungué as a refugee from Guinea-Bissau who struggles to survive in the German capital without papers after illegally crossing by boat from Africa to Europe. His attempts to do this by honest means are challenged when he is befriended by a shady German drug dealer in a relationship that will result in both tragedy and redemption.