ZAGREB FILM FESTIVAL
14.-21.10.2012.
02.10.2012
A Punk Story from the Other Side of the Berlin Wall
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Among 16 films in the documentary selection, there is also the unique This Ain’t California by the German filmmaker Marten Persiel, a punk story taking the audience into the world of skateboarding in the context of social and political changes in East Germany’s (German Democratic Republic) last decade.

In 90 minutes we will see East Germany in an entirely new way; through a generation and subculture which will show that life on the other side of the Wall was not always grey and obscured by Trabant exhaust gases.

“The German Democratic Republic was not supposed to be like that – streets were not for playing.” This statement is heard at one point in the film, while we are watching 1980s skateboarders hurrying across Alexanderplatz: hot pants, sex and music right next to official state parades. The story is authentic, all the way to production teams including real skateboarders from East and West Germany. The film merges past and present in order to show that skateboarders’ lives (shaped by the repressive regime) had their own strength.

This Ain’t California has an entertaining but powerful soundtrack, unlimited just like the vitality of the protagonists. Still, the film is not at all entertaining. It is a metaphor beginning in the GDR, but not ending with the fall of the Berlin Wall. The film avoids classic clichés that often appear in western views.

This Ain’t California has won the Dialogue en Perspective award at this year’s International Film Festival in Berlin.