FREE ON YOUTUBE Berlin Calling

How much Berlin does a Berlin film actually need? Hannes Stöhr offers locations like the Eastside Gallery, the Oberbaumbrücke and the Alex. He also shoots in two clubs: Bar 25 and Maria am Ufer. But most of the action takes place in the closed department. Although the techno movement wasn't fresh anymore in 2008, Berlin Calling delivers a nice portrait of Techno City (and punishes the lies of those who saw the sell-out back then). Berlin Calling, a swan song? More likely a misunderstanding, because a movement is shifting and meanwhile there are good clubs even in Tegel! So here comes the typical DJ, recording samples with his mobile in the S-Bahn and thus creating the soundtrack of the city. Usually musician movies are about Englishmen or Americans and play in the "good old days". Probably no genre is more conservative than the music film of all things! But Berlin Calling doesn't play in the deepest "once upon a time", but here and now! Hannes Stöhr may feel like a pioneer, because he brought techno to the screen! His big theme is genius and madness and that leads to the mental hospital. The DJ and patient is called Ickarus with ck and is played by Paul Kalkbrenner. How much Kalkbrenner is in Ickarus? I suppose, a lot! To understand the picture, you don't have to be very well versed in Greek antiquity. Let's simply exchange the sun for the mirror ball, because after all Ickarus rarely experiences the real sun. It turns night into day and that worldwide. Stöhr comes from Hechingen-Sickingen and has nevertheless made two formidable Berlin films. Here he shows the city from the inside and that's why the Bar 25 hosted parties especially for the film. The camera is allowed to slide through the dancing crowds and gets one of those rare moments that most people only remember darkly the next day. How I would like to have some such pictures from the film art bar Fitzcarraldo! Stöhr, one reads, had known Kalkbrenner for some time and finally persuaded him to play Ickarus himself. Consistently this has remained his only role so far! Ickarus calls Kalkbrenner his own demon; a guy who wants to go where Kalkbrenner is today. A guy who wants to go where every second person who lashes here through the Reichenberger also wants to go, I sometimes think.