“You don‘t need money – you just need boldness“ is how Juwelia‘s song goes about Berlin, a place she got stuck in many years ago. She still doesn‘t have money, but she hasn‘t lost her boldness. The Neukölln district is currently the place to be for penniless artists who are escaping their narrow worlds with their dreams in tow. Stefan Stricker aka Juwelia has a “store“ there, a open salon for dreamers and bold people. Rosa von Praunheim, his co-director Markus Tiark, and cinematographer Elfi Mikesch start their wanderings across the hip district from there. They meet creatives, crazy people, and “perverts“ (Praunheim code for queer) who hop around between casinos, SchwuZ, and food sellers and who are willing to talk about their biographies. An artist from Baltimore, an 89 year old former florist, a hip hop youtuber in a wheelchair, a singer-songwriter who fled Damascus, the constant protestor “Neukölln Turk“ Aydin Akin, a war journalist living with a Cuban performance artist and his 16 year old son, political queen Patsy L‘Amour la Love, and many more. This outsider mosaic is assembled in Juwelia‘s salon, where Praunheim and Mikesch shoot music videos to their Berlin songs and continue talking about their lives which leads to Neukölln, Korbach, and parental graves. It‘s where it becomes clear that new beginnings don‘t have to mean the erasure of the past.

Translation: Elinor Lewy