FREIZEIT or: the opposite of doing nothing

A Berlin neighbourhood and its young people, who are totally committed to political activism. A film made not about them, but with them.

What’s on the minds of those who are coming of age in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain today? Working with five dedicated young people, Caroline Pitzen has created a film that documents their lives. “There is no alternative to inaction,” is a quote from East German author Ronald Schernikau’s ›Kleinstadtnovelle‹. This film starts off with an excerpt from a 1980 television talk show in which Schernikau elaborated on that sentence: “It came from my experience in student council that nothing ever rocked the boat.” Almost 40 years later, the young people are just as unwilling to settle for that. We see them talking: in flats, on the street, in the park and at the lake. They plan demonstrations and campaigns, talk about gentrification, sexism, racism, the capitalist meritocracy — and drugs.Presented by Berlin Critic's Week

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