KINO - Als wir träumten (As we were Dreaming)

On the outskirts of Leipzig, just after the end of the GDR. Rico, Dani, Paul and Mark grew up in the whirlwind of reunified Germany. What was valid yesterday is no longer valid today. Night becomes day. The streets become the stage of their adventures. Rebellious and recalcitrant, the boys roam the neighbourhood, stealing cars, experimenting with drugs and the new swingers bar. They open their own nightclub, which is soon taken over by neo-Nazi skinheads. Their euphoria turns into disappointment. And yet they still have their dreams: Rico’s hopes to build a boxing career, Dani’s still longs for the love of his life, Sternchen - the most beautiful girl in Leipzig.That which the writer Clemens Meyer, born in Leipzig, recorded in his first and distinguished 2006 novel is now condensed at the hand of screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase and director Andreas Dresen into a cinematic parable about friendship and betrayal, hope and illusion, brutality and tenderness. Als wir träumten is the story of lost youth and at the same time, a mix between rebellion and the utopia of supreme bliss.

Dir.Andreas DresenGermany, 2013-2015 | 117 min.Portuguese subtitles (BR)Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin 2015

Andreas Dresen was born in 1963 in Gera and spent his first years in Schwerin. He directed am-ateur films from the late 1970s. After finishing high school, he worked as a sound engineer and trained at the DEFA. After completing his studies in directing at the Babelsberg Konrad Wolf Film School, he began working as a writer and director. Dresen achieved his first success with the omnibus film Nachtgestalten in the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in 1999, fol-lowed by Halbe Treppe (2001), Sommer Vorm Balkon (2006) and Wolke 9 (Cloud 9; 2008). In 2015 one of his films was once again selected for the Berlinale.

Image: ALS WIR TRÄUMTEN: © Rommel Film/ Pandora Film/ Foto: Peter Hartwig