Open Air Kino: Scherbenland

Ton Steine Scherben and the Contemporary Kreuzberg Sound. Featuring RAPK, Maike Rosa Vogel, and Rio Reiser. A documentary by Lutz Pehnert and Ferdinand Hübner.

“Scherbenland” tells the story of a band whose first album began with the question: “Why do I feel so lousy?”—and of a city that was transformed by their songs. In the early 1970s, Kreuzberg became a testing ground for a counterculture. With songs like “Macht kaputt, was euch kaputt macht,” “Alles verändert sich,” and “Der Traum ist aus,” Ton Steine Scherben gave a voice to a generation. Their music accompanied squatting, political struggles, and the search for a different way of life.

The film traces the legacy of that era and asks: What remains of that spirit of renewal? And what happens when the anthems of the Scherben meet the songs of today? In today’s Berlin, “Scherbenland” encounters musicians whose songs tell stories of life in the neighborhood—including the rap trio RAPK and singer-songwriter Maike Rosa Vogel. Their music emerges from the everyday life of a district caught between myth, gentrification, and new cultural energy. A film about music and poetry as forms of resistance—then and now. And about the question of whether both still have the power to change a city.

Original German version with English subtitles / German with English subtitles

Neue Zukunft Open-Air Cinema☀Open-air cinema in Friedrichshain☀Summer cinema between Ostkreuz and Treptower Park☀Neue Zukunft at Alt-Stralau 68

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