Wings of Desire
An immortal angel who watches over Berlin falls for a lonely trapeze artist and decides to trade his eternal, unseen existence for a fragile human life—risking the loss of his celestial nature to experience love and sensation.
“There are angels on the streets of Berlin.”
Synopsis
Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population and offering invisible rays of hope to the distressed, though they never interact with them. When Damiel falls in love with the lonely trapeze artist Marion, he longs to experience life in the physical world. With some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk, he discovers that it might be possible for him to take human form.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 102+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Peter PrzygoddaShot by Henri AlekanScored by Jurgen Knieper
Box Office
1987 · Box office
⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.4× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$3.5M
Re-release box office
- 20192 theaters
- $14K($18K today)
- 20184 theaters
- $163K($215K today)
- Total re-release
- $177K
Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation
Also known as
- Heaven Over Berlinen
- Sky Over Berlinen
- Wings of Desireen
- Les Ailes du désirfr
- Il cielo sopra Berlinoit
Community tags
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Cast & Crew
102 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Bruno Ganz
as Damiel
Solveig Dommartin
as Marion
Otto Sander
as Cassiel
Curt Bois
as Homer
Peter Falk
as Der Filmstar
Hans Martin Stier
as In weiteren Rollen - Der Sterbende
Elmar Wilms
as In weiteren Rollen - Ein trauriger Mann
Sigurd Rachman
as In weiteren Rollen - Der Selbstmörder
Beatrice Manowski
as In weiteren Rollen - Das Strichmädchen
Lajos Kovacs
as Im Zirkus - Marion's Trainer
Bruno Rosaz
as The Clown
Laurent Petitgand
as The Bandleader
Supporting cast
83Chick Ortega
as The Drummer
Otto Kuhnle
as The Juggler
Christoph Merg
as The Juggler
Peter Werner
as The Manager
Teresa Harder
as In the Library - The Angel
Jurgen Heinrich
as In the Old Apartments
Annelinde Gerstl
as On the Highway
Mick Harvey
as Crime and The City Solution / Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Nick Cave
as Self - Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Blixa Bargeld
as Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Susanne Vierkotter
as In the Circus
Paul Busch
as In the Circus
Karin Busch
as In the Circus
Irene Moessinger
as In the Circus
Franky
as In the Circus - Last But Not Least
Daniela Nasimcova
as In the Library - The Angel
Bernard Eisenschitz
as In the Library - The Angel
Didier Flamand
as In the Library - The Angel
Rolf Henke
as In the Library - The Angel
Scott Kirby
as In the Library - The Angel
Franck Glemin
as In the Library - The Angel
Jerry Barrish
as In the Bunker - The Director
Jeanette Pollak
as In the Bunker - The Costume Designer
Christian Bartels
as In the Bunker - The 'Hitler Youth'
David Crome
as In the Bunker - The Assistant Director
Kathe Furstenwerth
as In the Bunker
Werner Schonrock
as In the Bunker
Bernd Ramien
as In the Bunker
Erika Rabau
as In the Bunker
Silvia Blagojeva Itscherenska
as In the Bunker
Sultan Meral
as In the Bunker
Olivier Picot
as In the Bunker
Jochen Gliscinsky
as In the Bunker
Erich Schupke
as In the Bunker
Margarete Hafner
as In the Old Apartments
Oliver Herder
as In the Old Apartments
Margitta Haberland
as In the Old Apartments
Ralf Strathmann
as In the Old Apartments
Walter Ratayszak
as In the Old Apartments
Charlotte Oberberg
as In the Old Apartments
Lubinka Kostic
as In the Old Apartments
Gisela Westerboer
as On the Highway
Andreas Valentin
as On the Highway
Wolf Dirk Vogeley
as On the Highway
Ruth Rischke
as On the Highway
Simon Bonney
as Crime and The City Solution
Harry Howard
as Crime and The City Solution
Rowland S Howard
as Crime and The City Solution
Thomas Wydler
as Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Roland Wolf
as Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Kid Congo Powers
as Self
Denis Rodriguez
as With the Children
Dieta Von Aster
as With the Children
Gustav Geisler
as With the Children
Paul Geisler
as With the Children
Lorenz Geisler
as With the Children
Sla Ana Kostic
as With the Children
Benedikt Schumann
as With the Children
Nicolas Roth
as With the Children
Marcus Stenzel
as With the Children
Benjamin Ferchow
as With the Children
Mario Meyer
as With the Children
Mark Leuschner
as With the Children
Tibor Dahlenburg
as With the Children
Lia Harder
as With the Children
Mascha Noak
as With the Children
Vera Butzek
as With the Children
Donald Behrendt
as With the Children
Patric Kreuzer
Simone Sager
Gerdi Hofmann
Ulrike Schirm
Hans Marquardt
Heimke Karl
Klaus Mausolf
Ozyer Husinye
Jean Claude Lezin
Thierry Noir
Matthias Maa
Henry Luczkow
Louis Cochet
as Circus Spotlight Operator (uncredited)
Lina Otto
as Girl in the Club (uncredited)
Johanna Penski
as Flower Seller (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
3Producers
2Other crew
3Parents Guide
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