What to Do in Case of Fire

'What to do in case of fire' is an amazingly honest movie dealing with the anarchy past in Berlin pre reunification. A group of six ex-anarchists have a 'little' problem when a 12 year old bomb suddenly explodes in Berlin and they have to get a hold on a self-made movie showing evidence that they're responsible. While two of them are still active in demos and such, one is trying to hold on to her ideals while being a mother to two little children, the other three have completely turned away from their old ways and become 'respectable citizens'. This is the entertaining part, seeing these very different persons to come back together again and try to get their hide out of the situation without going to jail. But if you look deeper, this is a movie about the difference of people still living in the past and on the other hand people trying to forget their past, showing us that neither way will work.

It is simple to sympathize with the group, for their reluctance to hurt people, their very normal lives and their wish to change something in a world they don't feel they can accept.

I found myself really enjoying this movie, at first. In fact I was living in Germany in 87-88, exactly the period the flashback part is set in.

I found myself enjoying this movie at first, it brought back memories. The portrayal of terrorists in a kind of situation comedy light didn't strike me as strange at first.

It was when they made a bomb out of a fire extinguisher that what I was watching finally struck me. Shortly before I came to Germany, just a couple of weeks before, somebody blew up a bomb made out of a fire extinguisher at the American PX in Frankfurt. It was basically an attempt to kill people at random. I don't remember how succesful it was.

The politics of the group that did it was mostly as confused and futile as that of the characters in the movie. Ostensibly communists but far from being anything resembling real communists.

Somehow after that this movie palled for me. I just couldn't get into watching killers portrayed as lovable but basically good-hearted knuckelheads with hearts of gold.

This was quite a good movie. Perhaps I'm partial for German films, but this was even better because it wasn't about typical German film themes like racial tolerance, finding a lost love from the East-West separation, etc. The film told the story of a five anarchists who set a bomb in a government building in Berlin. The bomb's timer "stopped" and when tampered with 10 or so years later, begins where it left off. Suddenly it blows up the now-abandoned building and these five anarchists who are now older and more conservative must reunite and find a way to once again "smash the system" in order not to get caught. The film concentrated more on plot and less on cinemetography. There were a few nice cinemagraphic scenes however, and at the end, proved to be a heart-warming film. However, the movie was completely unrealistic and didn't touch on the differences of political ideologies as much as the back cover said it would. I think it would have been better if the characters were struggling to identify with each others' new political ideologies while having to work together to realisitically save themselves from their younger anarchistic days.

Once upon a time, there were six friends with a vision of a future in complete freedom, without the restrictions of a government stifling those too young and too foolish to stay within the bounds of what is 'normal'. So these friends lovingly created a homemade bomb and documented the whole process for posterity. They planted the bomb... and forgot all about it. Until twenty years later, when it finally blew up.

Twenty years later, only two of the six are still members of that "Scene" in Berlin, while the others have gone off to get married, have kids, drive Mercedes, make millions in their very own advertisement company or become district attorneys (!). Of course, their later careers will be of little interest, once the police have had a chance to look through the confiscated film material...

This is a great movie, about visions, friendship, solidarity - and anarchy. The plot is solid (in a Bond kind of way), and there is a deliciously ironic final twist.

So, what do you do, when there's a fire burning? Well, let it burn!

Naturally.

In 1987, in Berlin, six young idealistic anarchic activists leave a handcrafted bomb in a mansion. Only thirteen years later the bomb explodes, wounding two persons. The police force, under the command of the experienced inspector Manowsky (Klaus Löwitsch), investigate the terrorist act and go to the old apartment, where Tim (Til Schweiger) and the crippled Hotte (Martin Feifel) live, collecting all possible evidences, including many films. One of these films show the group making the bomb, and Hotte and Tim decide to find the former four members of their group to tell them that they may go to jail, if the investigation watch the film. Maik (Sebastian Blomberg) is a successful man working in an advertisement agency; Terror (Matthias Matschke) is a lawyer; Nele (Nadja Uhl) is a mother of two children; and Flo (Doris Schretzmayer) is a mysterious wealthy woman. The group joins force and plots a plan to retrieve the film.

I am really impressed with the quality of the German movies released on DVD in Brazil in the last years. All of them are excellent films, including "Was Tun, Wenn's Brennt"? The dramatic story has action and humor and an unusual situation, with a good discussion between values, such as friendship, idealism and surrender to the system. The story has no clichés, and it is interesting to revisit the idealism that most of us have when we are young and try to embrace the world, and our "final destination" being part of the system. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Que Fazer Em Caso de Incêndio?" ("What to Do In Case of Fire?")