Berlin Excelsior (2017)

The documentary shows scenes from the lives of numerous residents of the Excelsiorhaus, a residential and commercial building in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. The scenes depict the everyday lives of various residents, with André Krummel’s camera seemingly unnoticed, even as it takes part in their most intimate moments. Several residents of the Excelsiorhaus—“unsuccessfully trying to make good on the promises of happiness made by our society”—are portrayed in greater detail. They include a former escort, an aging revue dancer, a failing start-up founder, and a retiree who presents himself sometimes as a photographer and sometimes as a business consultant. They appear in different scenes that come together to form interconnected stories. The building itself is also brought into focus in numerous stylized interludes. The film does not establish a connection between it and the city beyond. The reinforced-concrete structure appears on its own in surroundings that are barely defined, and is shown in its entirety only at the end, in a night shot. In a sequence of excerpts from SFB’s evening news program spanning the past 50 years, ambitious plans for the building are announced, while reports also recount bankruptcies, a forced auction, and even murder. The documentary, filmed almost entirely inside the Excelsiorhaus, unfolds in scenes and dispenses with interviews and voice-over narration.