Wenders won the Best Director Award at Cannes in 1987 for this film inspired by one of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poems. Wings of Desire tells the story of two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, who descend to earth to observe and minister to the people of Berlin. One falls in love with a trapeze artist and decides to give up his immortality and, by indulging in earthly pleasures of love and romance, become human. The film is as much a re-examination of the divided city of Berlin before the Fall, with its spectral inhabitants, as it is a love story. The rich black-and-white photography intermixed with bursts of evocative colors helps to contrast the solemn Berlin of yesterday with a new and vital city.