Damiel is an Angel that watches over Berlin during the time of separation between East and West Berlin. We enter his angelic realm and see that other angels attend to the people of the city, listening to their thoughts and observing their loneliness and helping them out of their pain and isolation. Most times they provide peace, other times they can't. We see they great desire Damiel and his fellow angel Cassiel have for humanity, and their desire to interact with the world in such a way so as to have a full sensory experience with the city they watch over.
Damiel trades his immortality in order to join humanity in search of love with Marion, a trapeze artist at the circus. He meets Peter Falk, an angel himself who has become an actor who can feel the presence of angels even though he cannot see them. Damiel is encouraged by this and seeks Marion while beginning to experience the world. The film is about the fact that even angels have desire, they desire things of humanity which are created by God to be good. It is humanity that has flawed them. Damiel and Cassiel understand their desire to be human, but Damiel is willing to trade his seat as an angel for his desire whereas Cassiel is not.
This difference is one in that Cassiel does not turn from his desire, but chooses his position, to continue within it. Thus we understand that as angels have the power to decide, so do we as humans. Every moment is a decision to choose what we think, how we experience, what we do and which path we will ultimately walk down every moment of our lives.
