FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE So War Das S.O.36 

The history of our Kreuzberg district in a nutshell would have to read like this: 1. Building of the Wall; the frightened West Berliners leave the district. Away from the Ivan! 2. settlement of so-called guest workers, because no one else wanted to live in Kreuzberg (by the way, the district still looks like it did in 1945 well into the 1980s). 3. due to the settlement of the so-called guest workers the rents are completely in the basement = Kreuzberg becomes attractive for students and "alternatives". For a long time Kreuzberg had the reputation of being a gathering place for hippies and party animals. Finally, rather belatedly, the hip punks also discover the Müsli district. SO 36 is founded (named after the Kreuzberg postcode). 5 Kreuzberg after the fall of the Wall ekes out a niche existence. 6. Kreuzberg is rediscovered after the East boom and develops into a coexistence of all the groups listed above. At some point you can even get latte machiato in the morning. So War das SO36 deals with the punk district, which is what the makers stand for; especially Berlin's specialist for fantastic films and Godzilla Jörg Buttgereit (who is also an excellent disco DJ - as he was allowed to prove at our Wenzel Storch release party at Bar 25). No wonder that the frame story is expertly made up of film footage again! But above all, it's about anecdotes and live recordings from the club. I like to compare So War Das SO 36 with "B-Movie-Lust & Sound In West-Berlin", because both documentaries charmingly search for self-ironic laughs. After all, what is worse than reports by contemporary witnesses who constantly talk about "before" and "then"? A species that exists especially in West Berlin. After all, no one can check whether it was really so wild "back then" or "in the old days" - or not? But the directors Manfred O. Jelinski and Jörg Buttgereit know this and like to comment on what is said by means of overlays. The bands prepare the ground for the simplified German pop songs that were to be announced by Dieter Thomas Heck in the ZDF Hitparade in 1982 at the latest. So War Das SO 36 begins in 1981 and breaks off in 1984. In SO 36, therefore, a chart placing is still a long way off - dilettantism reigns here! That's why this documentary almost seems like a real-life satire, because it's not meant to arouse the suspicion that anyone could be pursuing a plan here... Berlin celebrities like Dr. Motte appear here as untalented bass players. There will definitely not be a second film about the time of punk & the avant-garde! For me, this grainy documentary is something of a shrine. Because whenever I ask myself why I'm doing all this with our shop in the first place, the film provides the answers.