Martin Reese

What was cinema in the past? What is cinema today? Hamburg filmmaker Dennis Albrecht asked himself these questions as he sifted through material he had been collecting since a project idea in 2008. Since then, he has repeatedly taken cameras into cinemas that no longer exist. He shot commercials, short films or events at the Grindel-Kino, Streit's, Rialto and Savoy and many other Hamburg movie theaters. In these personal perspectives, we see many cultural places that have disappeared.

It is the summer of 1984 in Schmalenstedt, in the middle of Holstein Switzerland, directly on the Baltic Sea. The 17-year-old Malte Ahrens, who calls himself Roddy Dangerblood, lives with his elderly parents in a farmhouse, is trained as a potter and has discovered for himself the punk that has made its way into Schmalenstedt with some delay.

In April 2009, Colonel Klein takes up his post as commander in Kunduz. The first soldiers move into the camp quarters. Among them are five young men who have so far been denied any field experience. So far, they have only known the mission in Afghanistan as an exercise. Colonel Klein is therefore faced with a difficult task, which turns the management of the camp into a crucial test. At that very moment, the Taliban's spring offensive breaks out against the Germans. The first casualties and deaths cannot be avoided and two tanker trucks are hijacked by the attackers. The war has begun. Months later, the stolen trucks are recovered. Both vehicles are stuck on a sandbank in the river. Klein has to decide whether the discovery poses a danger to his camp.

When Isa provokes the Nazis with a satirical song at her graduation party, she is denied her degree despite passing her exams. She has to give up her plan to become a teacher and, against her mother Petra's wishes, manages to perform in a political cabaret. She enjoys stage success as a singer with an accordion and falls in love with the pianist Laurenz. During the Second World War, Isa's family gets caught up in the wheels of political power and is torn apart - until, after much turbulence, the Vermehrens regain their old cohesion and accompany Isa together as she enters a convent in Bonn.