"Pool of Princesses", the last film in our current GOETHE FILMS series "Berlin on Film" is an emphatic documentary about coming of age, authentic and unadorned. An honest view on the life of the young protagonists, Klara, Mina and Tanutscha, in today's Berlin. It won the prestigious “
Dialogue en perspective” Award at the Berlinale 2007.
Celebrated filmmaker Bettina Blümner, who just brought out her first feature film "Broken Glass Park" to much critical acclaim and box office interest, described what attracted her to her protagonists and what she astutely captures in the film:
"I was interested in the intensity of this particular age group and the rough and straight-forward behaviour of Klara, Mina and Tanutscha; their way of communicating and their directness, but also their vulnerability and how they deal with it. It seemed to me that they don´t sweep problems under the table but talk about them with family and friends."
Here's one scene - Klara and Mina are at a bowling alley. They sit at a table facing each other and discuss Klara´s future and her career dreams:
Mina: How about hotel management?
Klara: That makes me …
Mina: It´s also gastronomy!
Klara: … Mina, I know. But then I have to learn how to make beds, how to clean, how to cook. I´ll do three months kitchen, three months cleaning, three months…it´s always the same.
Mina: Right.
Klara: And cleaning and kitchen… I hate that stuff.
Mina: Well, then…
Klara: I don´t want to work in such a posh restaurant, where, uhm, I don´t know. Wearing black and white and having to be friendly all the time.
Mina: You have to be friendly everywhere! You always wanted to open you own café. Just go into business for yourself, open a “You Inc.” and …
Klara: Yeah, I could do that without an apprenticeship!
Mina: Yeah, then do something else and then you can work in gastronomy, without an apprenticeship.
Klara: But I´m not interested in anything. I don´t want to work with kids, I don´t want to do a job where you have to sit in an office all the time … definitely not a trade.
Mina: How about being a travel agent?
Klara: You don´t earn much there, Mina. Look at all these travel agencies here, everybody does it online.
Mina: Then have your own fashion store.
Klara: You don´t earn much there either.
Mina: Well, then…
Klara: I don´t know.
Mina: Aren´t you interested in anything, Klara?
Klara: No!
Mina: That´s just not possible!
Klara: Well, yeah, but…let´s imagine, I want, uhm…I don´t know...I want…
Mina: Yeah?
Klara: …become an astronaut, for example. I couldn´t do that with my education.
Mina: True.
March 18, 6.30pm: "Pool of Princesses" (2007) -- PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DATE HAS CHANGED FROM 13 TO 18 MARCH!
An award winning documentary about teenage dreams on the cusp of adulthood in one of the capital's "priority neighbourhoods", now called Kreuzkölln. Berlin´s rough but real side, and a loving and open portrait of three feisty girls.
"A wonderfully revealing look at contemporary teens as well as present-day Kreuzberg" - Variety
Illuminating introduction by Annie Wong, the Director of Mammalian Diving Reflex's youth initiative, Young Mammals. She has collaborated with youth in Germany and Toronto on a variety of social practice art projects.
GOETHE FILMS screen at the TIFF Bell Lightbox
35 mm, with English subtitles
Tickets $10, day-of sales only at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, open at 10am
Open to audiences 18+.
