24 hours in the capital. The sun rises right next to the television tower. And once again illuminates the countless messages in which Berlin emerges from its anonymity in a very present way – on street lamps, electricity boxes, trees and fences.
The notes of the Berliners are everywhere, in their messages they are encouraging: “What do you want to do for the first time today?” Pragmatic: “Lost tax return in the storm!!! Did you find my papers?” Or poetically: “Just for a minute: stop, look up at the sky and realize how amazing life is.”
The RBB episodic film Notes of Berlin told by people who put such news on paper. The slips of paper in the film are authentic finds from the Berlin cityscape. Since 2010, cultural scientist Joab Nist has been photographing the often heartwarming, mostly curious, but sometimes also tragic notices hanging on pretty much every corner of the city. He curates and shares them with the internet on his blog and Instagram channel of the same name as the film.
Authentic slips of paper served as inspiration
The director and co-author Mariejosephin Schneider was born in Berlin and was just as fascinated by the collection of curious notes. She knitted 15 fictitious stories from the real messages, resulting in a film that jumps from episode to episode and not only changes the characters, but also the mood – from humorous to painful scenes.
The camera only follows the characters for a short time: for example, it accompanies a young woman to the WG casting, which takes on quite strange forms: A wild rave, but where you have to pull the old-fashioned waiting number. The film thrives on its open dramaturgy. Some episodes are only connected by passers-by whose paths cross briefly. Other characters share a story that is revisited throughout the film.
In between, note messages are displayed. They show that nobody is alone with their small and large everyday needs. There are always others in the city who are driven by housing shortages, lovesickness, neighborhood disputes, relationship crises, or who simply lost their pet.
In addition to well-known actors such as Andrea Sawatzki or Tom Lass, there are also amateur actors – perhaps that is what creates the blunt directness of the short scenes. Schneider succeeds in staging the situational, thoroughly honest character of the note messages in a credible way. A few of the 15 episodes could have been cut. Others are a light-hearted declaration of love for this crazy capital, where so many people meet and come together despite their inequalities. The tenor of the film towards Berlin remains ambivalent.
But as the camera roams the streets so light-footedly and unabashedly, it succeeds in depicting Berlin in at least most episodes as many people imagine the city or know, love or hate it. And that includes the clichéd image of the chaotically absurd hipster city that is reproduced in some scenes. In reality, too, many people come to Berlin to live out a cliché there.
Notes of Berlin, From March 5th in the ARD media library and at 0.05 a.m. in the first.