Cinema
Christiane F.
Christiane F. — Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo
Uli Edel · 1981
Synopsis
West Berlin, in the mid-seventies. Christiane, thirteen, lives in a large housing estate in Gropiusstadt and is bored there. She starts going to the Sound, a discotheque in the city centre, where she meets Detlef and a group of teenagers. There she first tries LSD and cannabis, then, on the evening of a David Bowie concert, heroin, and follows Detlef to the area around Zoo station, where the city's young drug addicts gather.
Context
The film is based on the book that Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck, journalists at Stern, published in 1978 from long recorded interviews with the teenager. The project was first Roland Klick's, who was removed two weeks before shooting after a dispute with the production, and Uli Edel took it over. Shot from August to November 1980 in the real locations, partly with first-time performers, it was released on 2 April 1981. The music is by David Bowie, whose concert scene was filmed in New York in December 1980.
Who it is for
A feature film of a little over two hours, which closely follows a teenage girl's addiction and the world of young drug addicts in Berlin.
Prizes and reception
The most-watched West German film of 1981, with nearly 4.6 million admissions, and a Goldene Leinwand the same year.