Berlin Calling
Hannes Stöhr:
Berlin Calling (Germany, 2008)
100 min. - German - No English subtitles. Finnish subtitles.
Opening Movie
The opening film of the fifth Rokumentti is Hans Stöhr’s Berling Calling, starring the internationally acclaimed DJ Paul Kalkbrenner. Berlin Calling is a tragicomedy set in the Berlin club scene and has been a great success in Central Europe as well as film festivals worldwide. This showing is also the film’s Finnish premiere.
Berlin Calling tells the story of the fictional DJ Ickarus. The popular electro artist Ickarus tours the clubs of the world with this girlfriend and manager Mathilda. Near the release of his most important album, Ickarus overdoses at an after-gig party – with the result of waking up from a psychosis at a psychiatric clinic in Berlin. Better known from the club scene and DJ lists, Paul Kalkbrenner makes his film debut in the leading role.
Berlin Calling manages to tell Ickarus’s dramatic story in a warm manner; the film is entertaining and touching simultaneously. Although the story may be fictional, an entire generation can be identified with the character of Ickarus. In his own words, the aim of the director Stöhr has been to reach the reality of the YouTube generation and concentrate on making a film of today, rather than yesterday. Ickarus represents the modern laptop and Internet musician, composing alone on his computer, touring the world on regular flights and selling his songs as downloads online. The DJ is the icon of his generation: his lifestyle resembles the goal of backpackers to escape the rules of society and wander towards the perfect, self-serving freedom. As a child of the ready-made world, Ickarus has no need to be responsible for anyone else.
Because no object for the young man’s rebellion can be found in the surrounding society, his destructive fury turns towards himself. Ickarus needs drugs to withdraw from the world that is too easy to live in.
Berlin Calling is a perceptive depiction of the longing of the empty generation for something worth living for. Stöhr’s direction combines the world view of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and the story of Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest creating an unforgettable music film suitable for everyone. Despite its heavy topic, Berlin Calling isn’t a heavy film. On the contrary, Ickarus’s story portrays a positive attitude towards life. Along the lines of the Rokumentti theme this year, Berlin Calling includes sex, drugs and… hope.
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HANNES STÖHR
Hannes Stöhr was born in Stuttgart in 1970 and, after completing his civilian service and a nine-month South America trip, studied European law at the University of Passau. He then studied scriptwriting and directing at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) between 1995 and 1999.
In 2006 he obtained a writing fellowship for the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. He works as a scriptwriter and director in Berlin as well as lecturer at the DFFB Berlin and the Filmhochschule Ludwigsburg.
