So German!

ACHTUNG FILM!

35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall:
SCHLEIMKEIM – OTZE AND THE GDR FROM BELOW
Germany 2023, 96 min.
director: Jan Heck
documentary film
with: Lippe and Hagen, Höhnie, Abse and Speiche, Geralf

A journey through time from the underground of the GDR to its downfall.

A punk documentary about the life and death of GDR punk Dieter “Otze” Ehrlich and his band Schleimkeim. We experience the downfall of the GDR and how Otze’s image anti-governmentalist and his freedom changed in the new FRG. Through various contemporary witnesses, original locations and archive footage, the development of the band and their attitude to life in the GDR is portrayed. The documentary also examines how the sudden lack of a nemisis and the new freedoms of West Germany catapulted Otze’s rebellious personality into other spheres. With the fall of the Wall, Otze not only lost his image of the enemy, but also his grip on reality and ultimately his life.

The film tells the story of this band and its leader, who became an immortal anarchist character through his music and is still surrounded by a myth today.

*** German Documentary Film Award in the category Music 2024 ***