This Is Not Berlin

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Movie
German title This Is Not Berlin
Original title Esto no es Berlin
Country of production Mexico
original language Spanish
Publishing year 2019
length 112 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Hari Sama
script Rodrigo Ordóñez ,
Hari Sama,
Max Zunino
production Ale García ,
Antonio Urdapilleta ,
Charlotte Lerchner ,
Hari Sama
camera Alfredo Altamirano
cut Ximena Cuevas ,
Rodrigo Ríos ,
Hari Sama
occupation

This Is Not Berlin (original title Esto no es Berlín ) is a film drama by Hari Sama that premiered on January 25, 2019 as part of the Sundance Film Festival and was released in Spanish cinemas on June 21, 2019. The film is autobiographical and takes place in 1986 at the time of the Soccer World Cup in Mexico City , the birthplace of the director.

action

While not only his family, but the whole world at the 1986 FIFA World Cup looks to Mexico, what is there in the Aztec Stadium happens Carlos is it only a little interested and would rather spend his time at the nightclub "Aztec"

17-year-old Carlos lives in Mexico and doesn't fit anywhere, either with his family or with friends from school. He lives with a younger brother and his mother, Carolina, who is so depressed she barely gets up. His best friend is Gera, who makes his living renting out his father's girly magazines to his classmates.

Carlos' life changes in one fell swoop when he and Gera are invited to the legendary nightclub "Aztec" in 1986 as thanks for the repair of a synthesizer, where he discovers the underground nightlife scene. The “Aztec” is the coolest club in the city center and the heart of the alternative art scene, and occasionally Gera's older sister Rita and her attractive friend Tito stand here on stage with their art noise punk rock band and sing about the changes in society Era.

Now the androgynous-looking young man with the long hair is ruled by punk, sexual freedom and drugs while his family watches the soccer world cup in his country. Carlos and Gera are increasingly taking refuge in the polysexual world of underground nightclubs and are overwhelmed by drugs, sex, alcohol and parties every evening. Among the artists and activists who gather on the upper floor of the Aztec is photographer Nico, who is attracted to Carlos' gentle nature and slowly transforms him into his muse. The Aztec becomes a safe haven for Carlos, a place where he can experiment with his body and his desires.

Because Gera borrowed the family car without permission and is punished with a month's ban on going out, Carlos has to go alone to the “Aztec”, where he has become indispensable for Rita's band and the entire stage technology. Even if Carlos doesn't really know if he's into boys, he takes advantage of an ambiguity in this regard. However, his insider status and his unclear sexual orientation are driving more and more a wedge between him and Gera. Because the Aztec artist group considers football a homophobic thing, they are planning political performances during the World Cup. They hold a parade in which they proudly display the word "GAY" written in red on their naked bodies. Carlos also takes part in this campaign.

production

Staff and cast

Directed by Hari Sama , who wrote the script and produced the film together with Rodrigo Ordóñez and Max Zunino . The film is set in the 1980s because it depicts Sama's life, according to the director, and Esto no es Berlín is absolutely autobiographical. While Carlos grew up in Lomas Verdes, Sama grew up in Echegaray, a few blocks away. In the film, Sama also tells of his own acquaintance with these artists in this suburb where there was no art. He felt that it was a historic moment in Mexico that deserves more attention, that time when young people tried to regain the public spaces that had been taken from them by dictatorship. In this sense, the artists of his film would have a political position that is very similar to the opposition in art in the 1980s: “It was a very postmodern atmosphere and people thought about what is art, what politics is, where we stand and where we're going as a society. ”On the other hand, it was also the moment when important artists such as the conceptual artist Gabriel Orozco , the action and video artist Francis Alÿs or Damián Ortega, who became known through his installations, had their beginnings and their work had these dark ones created secret places at a time when there was nothing in Mexico. Although everything happened in secret, very important musical and artistic projects and a completely new political language emerged from it.

Sama precedes the film with the following quote: “Heredamos de nuestra familia tanto las ideas por las cuales vivimos como la enfermedad por la cual morimos” (in German: “We inherit from our family both the ideas for which we live and the Illness for which we die. ”This is taken from Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time . The title of the film is picked up during a meeting of Aztec artists and activists when someone shouts into the crowd: “This is not Berlin! Our friends are dying! Everything they do there is party every night! "

The main role of the 17-year-old Carlos was cast with Xabiani Ponce de León . His best friend Gera is played by José Antonio Toledano . Marina de Tavira took on the role of his mother Carolina, the director Hari Sama plays his uncle Esteban. Ximena Romo plays Gera's sister Rita, Americo Hollander her friend and bandmate Tito.

Costumes, production design and film music

Gabriela Fernández was responsible for the costumes . For the production design, Sama resorted to on-board resources, among other things. The works that Nico exhibits in the film are pictures of his friend Javier Areán.

Almost all of the music was curated by Sama: "The soundtrack is the music I grew up with in my teenage years." Because Sama couldn't get the rights to the music from that time, he made his own, which had the energy that he needed. For the band in the film, he had selected people who knew exactly the musical genres of the countercultural 1980s.

Marketing and Publishing

At the end of January 2019, the film was presented for the first time at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. A first trailer was presented shortly beforehand. In early March 2019, the film was presented at the Miami Film Festival. From April 28, 2019, a screening took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in Critics' Week. It was released in Spanish cinemas on June 21, 2019. At the end of June and beginning of July 2019 it was shown at the Munich Film Festival in the Spotlight section. In early October 2019 he was presented at the London Film Festival . It is due to be released in German cinemas on February 27, 2020

reception

Reviews

The film has so far won over 82 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 7.2 out of a possible 10 points.

Variety's Dennis Harvey writes that Hari Sama's autobiographically inspired film was a fun, avant-garde dive into the Mexican punk and new wave underground of the mid-1980s. This Is Not Berlin uses the wisdom of a middle-aged director's perspective to draw not only a portrait of the liberated youth , but also a snapshot of bourgeois Mexican life, the larger socio-political context of which is largely kept in the background, as was recently done in Roma by Alfonso Cuarón . The focus is on a lively, often dizzying, but also dangerous world of hedonism for the sake of art , in which the emerging threat of AIDS is seldom openly and yet omnipresent, according to Harvey. With its coolness factor, the film will likely appeal to audiences who went through this era as well as those who wish they were there, whether straight or gay. The film likes the adventurous subculture the characters get into too much to be a mere warning, but besides the nice side, it also captures the disenchantment that comes with getting on this rollercoaster and a whole host of Leaving victims. Anyone who has actually participated in such avant-gardeism of the 1980s will admire the accuracy with which Sama and his staff recreated the general flair and video and performance art of the underground scene of the time. The only unsatisfactory element in the otherwise complex script that Sama wrote with Rodrigo Ordóñez and Max Zunino is the inadequate explanation of Carlos' problems with his mother, according to Harvey.

Jared Mobarak of The Film Stage writes that the story doesn't seem like a fictional one thanks to the raw and compelling performances of Xabiani Ponce de León , José Antonio Toledano , Ximena Romo and Mauro Sánchez Navarro . The outcasts they represent from “civilized” society are what every generation needs to free themselves from the oppression of a political and economic hierarchy. While what happens may seem familiar from the countless films about growing up in post-rock, this is very much a Mexican story and how this nation is struggling with cultural change to this day.

Awards (selection)

Malaga Film Festival 2019

  • Awarded the Silver Jasmine - Special Prize of the Jury (Hari Sama)
  • Best Supporting Actor Award (Mauro Sanchez Navarro)
  • Award for the best camera (Alfredo Altamirano)
  • Awarded the Critics' Prize (Hari Sama)

GLAAD Media Awards 2020

  • Nomination for Best Film - Limited Release

Impulso Morelia - del Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia 2018

  • Received the Cinépolis Distribución Award
  • Mention of the jury in the competition "Work in Progress"

Miami Film Festival 2019

  • Nomination for Best Film in the HBO Ibero-American Competition (Hari Sama)

Sundance Film Festival 2019

  • Nomination for the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Competition - Dramatic (Hari Sama)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of release for This Is Not Berlin . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 196874 / V). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ a b c d John Hopewell and Jamie Lang: Hari Sama's 'This Is Not Berlin': But It is Now Latin America. In: Variety, December 6, 2018.
  3. ↑ https://www.indiewire.com/2019/08/this-is-not-berlin-review-mexico-city-lgbt-1202164901/
  4. ↑ https://www.latinorebels.com/2019/04/27/notberlin/
  5. ↑ https://www.cineartemagazine.com/2019/04/el-festival-de-malaga-fondo_5.html
  6. ↑ https://www.indiewire.com/2019/08/this-is-not-berlin-review-mexico-city-lgbt-1202164901/
  7. ↑ a b Dennis Harvey: Sundance Film Review: 'This Is Not Berlin'. In: Variety, February 2, 2019.
  8. ↑ a b Jared Mobarak: This Is Not Berlin: Sundance 2019 Review. In: The Film Stage, January 30, 2019.
  9. ↑ Jamie Lang: See the First Trailer for Hari Sama's Sundance Premiere: 'This is Not Berlin'. In: Variety, January 21, 2019.
  10. ↑ This Is Not Berlin. In: miamifilmfestival.com. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  11. ↑ A Cinematic Celebration: Announcing the Feature Film Lineup for the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. In: tribecafilm.com. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  12. ↑ This is not Berlin. In: filmfest-muenchen.de. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
  13. ↑ This is Not Berlin. In: bfi.org.uk. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  14. ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  15. ↑ This is Not Berlin In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
  16. ↑ Erik Anderson: 'Rocketman', 'Pain and Glory', 'Euphoria', 'Sex Education' among GLAAD Award nominations. In: awardswatch.com, January 8, 2020.
  17. ↑ https://variety.com/2018/film/festivals/comala-this-is-not-berlin-win-impulso-morelia-1203005937/