Herr Lehmann

One of my new favourite films that made me love Kreuzberg just a bit more than I already did: Herr Lehmann. It tells the story of Frank Lehmann, a bar tender living in the 3036 borough of Kreuzberg back in 1989 just before the wall came down. Largely shut off by the Wall from the rest of West Berlin for 28 years it was (and is) a notorious sub-culture of students, artists, bohemians and immigrants living amongst the crumbling buildings. The film goes through the usual subjects you'd expect from a film about 20 somethings, but what really made it memorable for me was Herr Lehmanns visit to the East to drop off some money to a relative and his interrogation by the Stasi, and the strong sense throughout the film that the East and West could and would never be reunified. So of course the film ends to the wall coming down, and its a great scene, giving you some sense of the excitement and joy that the moment must have held for so many people, in Berlin and everywhere else too.

The soundtrack is pretty fun too, full of the Eels, Ween, Cake and the Violent Femmes. Not very 1989, but anyway...