Sonne und Beton

Story and acting pull you into the screen. I hope, the circumstances of the teenagers in the Plattenbauten are not that brutal as shown in this movie. Poverty of the families prevents the kids to get access to attention from girls or better educated grown-ups. And so the kids do not get a compass for strategic decisions towards a better life.

The most important treasure in such a toxic social environment is close friendship to get a chance to survive the teenage years. And this friendship between 4 teenagers is the core of the story.

My best movie of 2023 so far. A pity it is too dirty for an Oscar nomination.

No pun intended - there are only a handful interviews on the disc I got ... I was unable to watch this in cinemas. But the first few people (actors) that spoke ... I wondered if they even understood what the movie was supposed to be about? Which would make it even richer and I reckon better(?) ... as in how they played it. Because the script may be as tight as it can be ... if you do not have the right actors to play the roles ... well you'll have some issues making it.

That all said, the last actor to be interviewed he got it. This is about circumstances ... this is about not being able to escape your surroundings ... this is about family, this is about a broken society and system ... with neighborhoods that will raise children unable to escape the day to day violence.

Even more so when they do not let kids go to school, just because they forgot their ID. That is rough - usually kids don't even want to go. But as good as the intents may be from our main character (kid) ... he lets himself being dragged down ... the cycle of violence is there ... and it is big! There are quite a few stories and even those who may seem evil, have a family, have their own cross to bear (or whatever the equivalent would be in other religions).

The dialog sounds real, the story feels real ... and it may make you sad ... thinking that this or something similar is how certain parts of Berlin (or any big city probably) "work" ... well they don't, that is what I am saying.

This film is a very good start to talk about, why the suburbs of german cities are not yet burning (like many times in the US or France for example). A good occasion maybe would have been, the voting for the expropriation of a big housing enterprise in Berlin. It was hold in 2021 and since than ignored by the government.

You can realise perfectly with this film, that we are separated in our experiences of marginalisation. This is wanted and forced by the upperclass and we don't know how to unionise.

In one scene at the beginning of the film, you see a short cut of a news program and the than-chancellor of Germany. It's talked about his so called "Agenda 2010" which even increased the social gap in the last 20 years in Germany dramatically.

What Kids(1995) was for the US or, even more, what City of God(2002) was for Brazil, Sonne und Beton(2023) is for Germany. The most realistic german film apart from Systemsprenger(2019). No documentation could do better.

And like all this films, it hurts. It should. Watch it! Let it sink in and than watch it again! Everybody! As more far away the environment you grow up in is, from the one in the film, the more urgent.

I lived in Berlin at the time the story is set and know that district, and while there is some truth to the story (which has gotten a lot worse), I gotta say it's far fetched and overblown. Berlin is not Paris and Neukölln is not Nanterre - that area is 25 minutes by subway to city center. A far cry from growing up in da hood classics like "Fresh" (1994), this is a series of bro stereotypes: meek German teenager constantly pressured by dysfunctional relatives, immature peers and bloodthirsty Muslims. I'm from the Balkans and even I think that's a tad simplistic. The director comes from a privileged background and has an annoying preachy tendency. The film is to be used as learning material on toxic masculinity in high schools, that gives you an idea what to expect. That being said, it's well made and the acting is very good for a German film. And the pressing motive has meanwhile become very real: German youngsters (and men) feel emasculated and worthless among migrant alpha males.

Sonne und Beton is a movie based on the book with the same name by German comedian Felix Lobrecht. Despite the author's upcoming in the same part of Berlin where the story takes place, Berlin-Gropiusstadt, the story is a fictional one. We are following a group of four friends in their young teens, Lukas, Gino, Julius and Sanchez, watching them with their daily struggles in one of the roughest parts of Berlin.

This film is best described with one word: raw. As most of the cast is comprised of every day people and barely any recognized actors took part in the production, the film as a whole and especially the actor's performances feel very real and authentic. As a lot of German dialects are spoken, I suspect that this movie is not very easy to follow for most non-native speakers if you do not use subtitles. Even I as a native speaker had some trouble understanding a couple of sentences.

Overall, this film is quite brutal, honest but also thought-provoking through the portrayal of all the family problems in a poor part of German's capital. The struggle between trying to get out of your bad childhood, maybe even pursuing higher education and the reality that may be limiting you is portrayed really well. It also hits on the topics of immigration, domestic abuse and drug use while still portraying some light-hearted humor in parts.

All in all, definitely one of the better films the German cinema has produced over the last couple of years and worth a watch!