FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Robert Thalheim - Netto


Many of my friends are really afraid for their future. The "Corona" period really sucks! But think about the Berlin of the post-reunification period, how much their jobs lost. Nevertheless, that's exactly the stuff of the comedy "Netto". You know what I mean?

Today - on 13.4.2020 - I found "Netto" free on YouTube. In good quality, but in some places the sound is missing, because of the music rights. Don't be annoyed because of that! - When I had the idea to found a Cinethek in the early 00s (that means: a video library with films from all over the world & all decades), a promising upswing in German film was taking place. The sticky relationship comedy from Cologne or Munich, in which "man" was a journalist and "woman" an architect, gave way to films that finally came from Berlin and played in reality. For the first time we saw unemployed people or losers of the turnaround. For the first time ever we saw the "new" federal states! I was thrilled, watching one German film after another! How would it be to be there from the beginning and discover something for yourself? Who knows, maybe the next "Godard" or "Truffaut"? Robert Thalheim's debut Netto is exactly such a film. Thalheim studied at the HFF Konrad Wolf in the seminar of Professor Rosa v. Praunheim. With a budget of 5000 Euro he realized this drama and reached 20.000 viewers according to wikipedia! The DVD was then even released by Sony. It is a father-son story, but with swapped roles. Sebastian (Sebastian Butz) lives with his mother in Berlin, but she moves to the suburbs with her new partner. But Sebastian wants to go to his father Marcel (Milan Peschel) in Prenzlauer Berg! In his shabby apartment he is allowed to sleep on the coach. Marcel is a turnaround loser who went bankrupt with his first business. One who still dreams of big money and considers himself an extraordinary "security" expert. But he never writes applications. This is where Sebastian comes in, teaching his whiny father how to conduct job interviews - and lo and behold, for the first time Marcel is actually invited and wants to buy an expensive tie for himself. Of course there is a scandal when buying a tie and of course Marcel has no chance to get the job (which he hides from his son). In this condition Sebastian now steps in front of his father to introduce his new girlfriend Nora (Stephanie Charlotta Koetz) to him. Nora, however, still knows the father, had to remove him from the pub once drunk and disappears. Apparently Marcel has no choice anymore... At times Netto looks like a documentary. No wonder, because Thalheim and his team shot this "exercise" in only 17 days of shooting and improvised as much as possible. This resulted in the most beautiful scenes, such as the one of the snack bar philosophy: Marcel gives one of his lectures at the snack bar, but you can't see the host. By now, Netto is already history. We experience the district of Prenzlauer Berg as it no longer exists. Today there is no Marcel philosophizing at the snack bar anymore. Today southern German neighbours call the police for such incidents.