The film In pursuit of the paper birds premieres on the 17the of September and will trigger a feeling of nostalgia in many of us. It’s a film that gives a raw and beautiful glimpse into the soul of Berlin in the decade of the 2010s, with a focus on Friedrichshain and all the different characters that made this Kiez so special.
As a former music video and image filmmaker, Mariana Jukica has allowed us to perceive the spirit of Berlin and capture all its sparks. She awakens memories of a lived madness, at a time before tourist hooligans took control of the city.
The film is told from three angles. Mia, Keks and Ian, who are in their late twenties and early thirties, are all shying away from reality and in search of their own personal happiness.
Chasing Paper Birds catapults audiences on a hot, drug-and-alcohol-infused summer night with the typical Berlin prototypes, in search of Fortuna, as their inner demons rush them through the trials of life. Staggering, losing the ground beneath their feet, floating, and then rushing again – the figures lead the viewer into a wild night filled with adventure. The film understands how to reproduce the Berlin scene with all its elements.
The other protagonists – the spätis, the clubs and the rooftops, the glamor and the dirt, the parties, the sex, the drugs and the alcohol, the music, the drunkenness, the dreams and the fears, the true love and the great drama. The dance, the lost days, the frenzy of courage and the rigidity of fear. It’s a film about high hopes and even greater fears of losing.
In Marianas Jukica’s debut film, which comes across as drunken ecstasy, the Croatian / Canadian filmmaker captured the attitude to bustling city life almost like a documentary film.
Mia, Keks and Ian are characters who from the start seem very familiar to audiences. This is probably because everyone knows people like them.
Mia is an ambitious French dancer. Desperately, she searches the shadows of the city for answers and meaning to her life. Her dreams of becoming a famous artist and her hope for true love were dashed.
Keks, a young DJ, escapes the big decisions in life and the responsibility of growing up. She lets herself fall into the arms of a raging evening in Berlin.
And Ian, a glamorous video performance artist who enjoys being the center of attention, is in despair after being swept away by love for the first time. He gave his heart and lost it. For a person like Ian, with a sense of great drama, it threatens to end in dangerous emotional despair.
The subtleties of the camera’s work, the sound recordings that capture the typical Berlin rustling, and finally the interaction of the two takes the viewer on a journey with moments of trance of a mixture of madness and happiness.
The film shows a lost generation of the last decade through and through. In the main roles none other than Vladimir Burlakov (Iron Sky – The Race Ahead), Henrike von kuick (Am Himmel der Tag), Lucie Aron (Berlin Syndrome) and Florian Bartholomäi (Rubinrot).
For many years Berlin has been a magnet for those who got lost. For foreigners and birds of paradise. For young people, who let themselves drift into a city that is both poison and antidote. Growing up on the adult play area.
Chasing Paper Birds is a contemporary document from Berlin, from a time when the German capital was home to people who did not know what they belonged to. A film that has preserved a legendary era in fast and captivating images.
In pursuit of the paper birds is screened at Achtung Berlin, September 17, 2020, 10:00 p.m. (Kino Babylon) and September 18, 8:30 p.m. (City Kino Wedding). In theaters soon, more to www.chasingpaperbirds.com.
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Text: Marie F. Trankovits
Marie F. Trankovits, 33 – traveled the world until she fell in love with Berlin. Currently working on his writing career.
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