Wings of Desire opens with views from above of a fragmented Berlin that was mutilated during World War II. The city still bears the wounds of war and is unable to recover - the worst is where the Wall is, like the scalpel that opens and divides the skin into two halves, only being able to do more with it. a. An angel, later introduced as Damiel, stands on the highest part of a destroyed church, looking down on a devastated Berlin, a city trying to recover from war and its citizens striving to return to normal and get their lives back. This entire shot is presented to the viewer in black and white, as if the angels and the viewer shared the same colorless world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay The film's omniscient vision allows the viewer to witness the story, as if looking in from the outside and being – one way or another – left out of the story. This is why, even though the viewer sees through Damiel's eyes, he remains himself – with his own thoughts and feelings. The viewer realizes, as the film progresses, that there is not one but several angels in the city. Damiel constantly shares his thoughts with another angel, Cassiel, about how the world is different for humans and angels. Later, as Damiel and Cassiel discuss creation – the so-called Genesis story – these differences make much more sense. Angels have been there forever, so they already existed when the glaciers began to melt, when fish appeared followed by all kinds of animals. When the first human appeared, physically resembling an angel, Damiel and Cassiel remember how they made fun of them. However, they were shocked when humans discovered how to fight, as it led them to war. The viewer should keep in mind that although the angels appear to lead idyllic lives and have an extraordinarily young appearance, they have incredibly old and wise souls. Angels may look like humans, but they never were. Therefore, as angels are immortal, they lack the most important thing in a human being, namely their mortality. The reason why humans are, why they live the way they live, or why they do things the way they do is simply – but not so simple – because they have a clock that reminds them of their ephemeral nature. Thus, the viewer experiences this mortality and the desire to live life to the fullest – as all humans do – with scenes full of color, as if looking through a brightly colored kaleidoscope. Humans are alive, one of the main reasons is that they feel, because it is through suffering that they know they are alive. It is because humans feel sadness that they experience happiness and vice versa. Angels, on the other hand, are incapable of seeing in color or feeling anything with their five senses. Therefore, not only do angels not love and feel loved, but they also cannot affect human life. This is what the viewer sees when Damiel, as much as Cassiel, sees humans suffering and struggling throughout life, trying to understand and comfort them, but the angels can only try to ease the worries humans, not to cure disease. This is what the viewer sees in the shot where Cassiel and a young man are standing on a roof, Cassiel trying to console the man but not succeeding. In the end, this man ends up.