The film Mietrebellen starts with the Rosemarie Fliess' funeral, a 67 year-old Kreuzberger retiree who was evicted from her apartment on April 23, 2013 against her doctor's advice and despite the fact that her appeal process was not yet completed. Rosemarie Fliess died two days later in an emergency winter shelter. At her funeral one of the speakers said "a forced eviction is the most violent way to push poorer tenants out of their homes." This isn't the only way, but as better off tenants move into inner-city neighbourhood, the methods used to displace long-standing tenants has become more radical. MIETEREBELLEN portrays the people in the neighbourhood who are trying to counter the housing and social politics that support these developments: the initiative Kotti & Co., for example, who successfully prevented the outrageous rent increases in the apartments around the Kottbusser Tor. The Palisaden Panthers, an alliance of tenants in houses with apartments accessible for the elderly and disabled who together protested against the 100% rent increase in their house. The initiative Stille Straße is a group of seniors from Pankow who in 2012 squatted their senior's home to protest against its closing. What MIETREBELLEN shows is the diversity of Berlin's tenant movement. MIETREBELLEN depicts the start of a new movement that will most certainly gain momentum in the coming months.

Tom Dorow