Filmstelle

A train goes through fields, woods and villages, passing small houses and train stops. In the steam of the locomotive a sign appears: Berlin 15 Kilometers. The houses get larger and move closer together, the tracks multiply and the destination is reached: Berlin in the mid 1920s. But in the metropolis the day is just starting; the streets are empty, the shutters closed. Gradually at first, then faster and faster the doors open, citizens go on the street and the trams go their ways. The days work is started and with increasing tempo machinery and daily occurrence mix in a firework of montage. Here two dorks bark at each other, there a couple marries – the city lives and is lived.

In an interplay of rhythm and movement, Walther Ruttmann composed a veritable symphony that is reflected in the careful structure of the film. As a cosmopolitan city, Berlin intoxicates, bewitches and overwhelms with its abundance and complexity. Here the city itself is the protagonist of the film – a real living organism. The silent film is set to music by three outstanding soloists who recently came together as an electronic trio: Iokoi, Víz and Carla Boregas.

Vanessa Loretan