Titel: Kinder | Kids
Children – experts in their own field. But how do they become such experts? By letting them discover the world on their own, and this is exactly what director Nina Wesemann tries to document with her camera with four different Berlin children (Emine, Marie, Christian and Arthur), she is always at eye level with the children, in other words we see the world from their perspective. We are also confronted with different cultures and different layers in which the children live. The parents were deliberately left out of the picture. And just as children are, they also try out completely different things, depending on their age, or explain world events in their own words. For example, two siblings are amused by how they let some parcel tape roll out of the window and collect it again, or the little sister is told what Donald Trump is a very dangerous person who might throw a nuclear bomb on the earth and then perhaps we will all die, but perhaps not in Germany either. Unlike what we often get to see in documentaries about big city children, it’s not the problems that count here, but the normal life in the city as a child day and night.
Conclusion:
In my opinion, documentaries have a heavy foothold compared to regular feature films and perhaps the Berlinale is not the best place to show the urban life of children in Berlin at a children’s festival. Occasionally, however, this documentary surprises with childlike wordplay or corresponding situation comedy. It’s also pleasant that Berlin is presented from quite unknown corners and you don’t get this typical Berlin flair served, which you’ve been constantly rubbing under your nose in recent years and which is slowly getting quite tiring for us Berliners.
Actors:
Arthur
Christian
Emine
Marie
Regie:
Nina Wesemann
Information about the film incl. short film excerpt and seasons:
https://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/berlinale_programm/datenblatt.html?film_id=201912247
Pictures from the Q&A at the Zoo Palast:
