Babylon (Kreuzberg)

The Babylon Kreuzberg is a Berlin cinema with two halls where only films are shown in their original version. It belongs to the Yorck Kinogruppe and is located at Dresdener Straße 126 near the Kottbusser Tor underground station in Kreuzberg's SO36 neighborhood .

history

From 1955 to 1975 the cinema in a residential building in the middle of Kreuzberg's Kiez was known as 'Helo Filmbühne' and then briefly under the name of 'Kent' (with a Turkish program). Since 1986 it has belonged to the Yorck cinema group , which gave it the name Babylon . With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Berlin's division, the capital had two cinemas called “Babylon”. In order to differentiate itself from the Babylon cinema in Berlin-Mitte, the Kreuzberg cinema was given the addition "Kreuzberg".

present

Babylon Kreuzberg has been an established OV / OmU cinema (original version / original version with subtitles) since the 1970s. In addition to the core program, many special events are also shown. One of them is the "double role" created together with radioeins ( rbb ): Here the showing of a new film is flanked by an earlier work by the same director, a classic template or a documentary that takes up the film theme. Music events also take place in Babylon Kreuzberg, for example on the occasion of DVD releases or accompanying current exhibitions about artists (such as David Bowie ). With the “Berlinale goes Kiez” project initiated in 2010, a Berlin art house cinema will be an additional venue for the Berlinale festival for one evening (on a total of seven evenings) . In 2012 the Babylon Kreuzberg was one of these venues.

architecture

In the years before the takeover by the Yorck Kinogruppe, the cinema had a hall with 462 seats. In 1989 this hall was divided into two, which means that twice as many films can now be played.

Hall A is the larger of the two and has 192 seats in 12 rows; in room B there is space for 72 visitors spread over 9 rows. The ceiling of the rectangular-looking room A and the lower shoulder-high part of the walls are painted in dark blue, while the upper part of the walls is light blue. Towards the canvas, a gold-colored fabric with folds is attached, which draws the eye to the curtain of the same color. Room B has a smaller screen and appears completely in red tones.