On March 2, 2023, “Sonne und Beton” opened in cinemas – and the best-selling film by cabaret artist and podcast great Felix Lobrecht was expected with a lot of hype – so the entire cinema tour was sold out within hours at the start! We rightly believe that “Sonne und Beton” is excellent genre cinema from Germany that presents itself as refreshingly authentic.
FILMSTARTS editor Stefan Geisler managed to find the filmmaker David Went meet for an interview at the cinema launch of “Sonne und Beton”. and talked to him about working with Felix Lobrecht, avoiding stereotypes in films, experiences with “problem pensioners” in Gropiusstadt and his love for “La Haine”.
Our interview with David Wnendt
David Went: Awesome! It was really a very, very good experience. There are two ways to work with book authors: either the author says “I give you free rein” or he writes the screenplay correctly. Both are cool. What doesn’t work is everything in between. If an author says, “Do it,” but then comes along half a week later and micromanages everything, things go wrong.
Felix thought it was important not to let his ‘baby’ out of his hands completely. He wanted to take notes and I was fine with that. We met and had to get to know each other a bit first. But the writing went surprisingly well then – he has a keen sense of language and worked a lot on the dialogues. We had to come up with new dialogue for the script that isn’t in the book. I worked more on the structure and design of the scene.
David Went: Sun and concrete’ is based on stories that Felix experienced himself or that his buddies experienced. But it’s not an autobiography. It is an independent artistic work. It was important to Felix that the believability and realism were right – especially with the language.
The actors had to embody that too. He didn’t want “Udo from Baden-Württemberg” there, but boys from Neukölln. I myself wanted to delve into Felix’s past in preparation. I have together with Jörg Hartmann [Anm. d. Red.: spielt in Film Matthias, den Vater von Lukas] Felix’s father has visited. We looked at old photos from back then. Felix’s brother had very old, grainy cell phone videos from the subway and from school, which we used, of course. Overall, Felix and I both wanted the movie to be as authentic as possible.
You have to believe the guys the jargon
David Went: We put a lot of time into the casting and tried to cast a “big net”. With each role I thought about what the actor had to be able to do. Then I designed the casting scenes accordingly. All four boys had to deal with the language – that they believe it’s slang.
The actor of Julius had to be extroverted and be able to play from exuberant to gloomy. Lukas must be able to get close to the audience. There must have been something childish about him. It should hurt to see him with a cigarette in his mouth. In the end, every actor has to fit his character perfectly. Some of them turned out to be privately similar to the character: Lukas’s actor [Anm. d. Red.: Levy Rico Arcos] for example comes from the area of Gropiusstadt, Sanchez [Aaron Maldonado-Morales] comes from Kreuzberg and, like his role, has Cuban roots. Vincent and Raffael are from North Rhine-Westphalia and have never been to Gropiusstadt. Yet they had that certain something that was just right for their roles. So I trusted the casting process.
Is “Sun and Concrete” political?
David Went: It is about realistic problems, a realistic environment, a reality of life that many experience every day. Many viewers can identify with the content – this makes the film relevant or even political. Fortunately, the film is also very entertaining. I took Felix to schools in Gropiusstadt, where he presented the book. And there were also some children who said, “I haven’t read a book yet, but I have devoured THE book.” For them it was a story from their life. The film must also achieve that: to give these people the feeling that they are really being seen.
David Went: I think if you go in depth and look closely at the movie, it’s hard to take advantage of it. Of course, this question comes up more often – I’ve made a movie about Hitler, a movie about neo-Nazis and the question was always what do you do when the wrong side applauds? This possibility cannot be completely avoided – people sometimes use or criticize something without having seen the film. You can also get a shit storm from people who haven’t seen the movie. I support everything that can be seen and heard in the film. I can defend everything.
David Went: “La Haine” is so monumental and an unattainable example. There are also one or two genuine “La Haine” quotes in the movie. I like “La Haine” because, despite its harshness, it has great cinematic humor. “La Haine” is not hand-operated gloom. The film is really playful in terms of music, cuts and effects and develops a cinematic poetry out of it. It’s good to get inspiration from such classics – I can learn from them in many ways.
Is “Sun and Concrete 2” coming soon?
With expected success: is “Sonne und Beton 2” a possibility? And what could a sequel be about?
David Went: So you have to ask Felix that. At the moment he finds absolutely no peace to write, because we need him for the film promotion. Fortunately, he likes the movie and fights with us to lure people to the cinema. I would be happy if he writes a second part. It is then entirely his secret what that would look like.
David Went: So right now there seems to be this instinct that you try to avoid that cliché trap by flipping the cliché by saying, ‘Okay, it’s kind of stupid that the drug dealers in the park have an Arab background. How about if it were a lesbian girl gang from Stuttgart?” The result would have nothing to do with reality, it would be utterly absurd. In my opinion, film has to do with reality. Film should show the world as it is, not just as it should be.
You can avoid the cliché by going deep. In this case, the drug dealers may have an Arab background, but we give space to the characters. The viewer experiences them as complex people. That’s the only way to get past the cliché.
These characters engage in a struggle similar to that of the main characters and face their own problems in society. If the teachers don’t trust you at all and just want to keep you safe, and German boomers are constantly harassing and insulting you, then you have no prospects. We experienced that ourselves on set. Everyone, regardless of skin color, origin and religion, actually wants to grow and make something of themselves – and some just don’t get that chance.
Gropiusstadt & the “problem pensioners”
David Went: In many cities around the world there are problem areas, where poverty reigns and many people live together in a small space. In some houses in Gropiusstadt, 400 people live in the same building – that’s very tight.
But Gropiusstadt is not an abandoned district. It’s not a suburb. Many playgrounds and sports fields are currently being built in Gropiusstadt. There are youth clubs, schools are being built or renovated. However, there is still such aggressiveness in the air. There are very rude people there and poverty – with all the side effects that entails. In Berlin, a rough tone is often heard, in Gropiusstadt it is even more extreme. But we never had any problems with the young people there, but rather with German ‘problem pensioners’.
David Went: Actually both. A film crew alone disturbs people in their daily lives. A film crew takes up parking spaces, blocks paths, makes light and sound – it’s unavoidable. We took pictures with a drone, and people threw moving boxes and pillows out the window to shoot down the drone. People shot us with flying ammunition. The police were called a million times. Or we were complained about on set because we shot with spotlights at night and that was “a waste of electricity”.
It’s not so bad in other areas. Yet there was also a lot of support, for example from the local youth clubs or the mayor of Neukölln, Martin Hikel. And especially the young people from Gropiusstadt have helped us enormously.
?
David Went: I read somewhere that there are two kinds of artists. Some, like Picasso, stay at home and make the most of themselves and their imaginations. These are the original geniuses. Their early work is usually the most exciting. The others, like Cézanne must go. You have to experience, research, drive around, talk to people and then make something out of it. You need a lot more tries and tries. But here the late work is usually more interesting. I belong 100% to this second group.
As a child I moved a lot. Maybe that’s why I’m still hungry for something new to this day. I was so focused on “Sun and Concrete” that I can slowly start on the next project. I will be writing and developing throughout the year.