There is a special niche within German cinema (as well as within art, literature and music) dedicated solely to the city of Berlin. Berlin; Berlin; Berlin: a paragon of unbridled decadence and unfettered expression. This film is an amalgamation of every gritty, grimy and grotesque Berlin cliché compressed into the shell of a glitzy, generic “omnideutsch” romantic drama, which at times is indistinguishable from an Andreas Bourani music video or this.
Fucking Berlin follows Sonja, a painfully generic young woman played by Svenja Jung, as she begins her university studies in Berlin, away from the protection of her parents, and becomes overwhelmed by her newfound freedom. She gets quickly caught up in love, drugs, alcohol, partying, ends up in webcaming and, subsequently, in prostitution to fund her decadent lifestyle (which does not make sense at all as it’s quite obvious that her parents are loaded, and she wouldn’t need any extra money anyway).
There are a lot of awkward, unnecessary and completely bizarre sex scenes, some involving live animals and pee, to inject shock value into an otherwise generic coming-of-age slash romantic drama. The production values are quite high which doesn’t really help in portraying a gritty and grimy Berlin. The acting is reasonably good but the film drags on a bit and feels much longer than its 94 minute run-time.
For those new to German cinema this might be a fascinating and shocking film, but for the others the clichés and garishness will be unbearable.
If you want to see a powerful film about Berlin, drugs and prostitution, look here.
Rating: 4 out of 10 Stars
Green Bear 