The Ernst Busch Academy is one of Germany's best respected acting schools, and every year hundreds of would-be thespians apply in hopes that they'll be chosen for their rigorous program of study. Filmmaker Andres Veiel chose four students at random as they were accepted at the Busch Academy, and in the documentary Die Spielwuetigen, he allows us to eavesdrop on them as they spend four years learning their craft and growing from callow youngsters to adults in search of their big break.

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

In 1980s Italy, a relationship begins between seventeen-year-old teenage Elio and the older adult man hired as his father's research assistant.