There are angels on the streets of Berlin...

One of Wim Wenders' biggest commercial successes and arguably his most accessible film to date, Wings of Desire (aka: Der Himmel uber Berlin) centres around two trench-coated angels, Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander), wandering the streets of post-war, pre-unification Berlin. Invisible to humans, they listen to the tortured thoughts of the mortals, occasionally dispensing heavenly solace to those in need. An encounter with a beautiful, circus trapeze artist, Marion (Solveig Dommartin), sees Damiel falling in love and longing to give up his immortal state in order to experience the simple joys of human experience. Damiel is assisted in his transformation by an American actor (Peter Falk) filming on location in the city, himself a former angel who has traded in his wings for a mortal existence.

Scripted by Wenders and respected German playwright and novelist Peter Handke, the film is impeccably shot by legendary cinematographer Henri Alekan (Jean Cocteau's cameraman on La belle et la bete), blossoming from the monochrome perspective of the angels to colour following Damiel's eventual transmutation. As ever with Wenders, music plays an important part and the film features rare on-screen performances by the bands Crime And The City Solution and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds.

Multi-award winning (including the Best Director prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival) and hugely acclaimed, Wings Of Desire is a delightfully poetic celebration of the human condition. It famously inspired Brad Silberling's 1998 hit film, City of Angels, starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. In 1993, Wenders reunited with Ganz, Sander, Dommartin and Falk, along with Nastassja Kinski and Willem Dafoe, for a sequel, Faraway, So Close!.