Sonnenallee (4 Stars)

This is a film that takes place in East Berlin in the 1970's. Sonnenallee is the name of a street in Berlin that was divided by the Berlin Wall. The Wall was built so close to the houses that 17-year-old Michael Ehrenreich, who lived on the eastern side, could stand on the balcony outside his room and piss on the Wall. On the western side young people liked to stand on a fire escape overlooking the Wall and shout abuse at their primitive neighbours in the East. There was a checkpoint in the street for West Berliners to cross to and from the East, but of course, the East Berliners were not allowed to cross.

What were the teenagers in East Berlin interested in? Politics? No way! All they wanted was to listen to illegal western music, such as the Rolling Stones. Luckily for them records were frequently smuggled across the border (by bribing the border guards) and sold to the young people of Sonnenallee and the surrounding areas for extortionate prices. Three weeks wages for a Rolling Stones album was typical.

Michael is in love with a girl in his street called Miriam, but he has no chance with her because a rich young man from West Berlin visits her every day.

This is a really cute coming-of-age film. The surroundings are bizarre, incomprehensible not only to foreigners but also to Germans who never lived so close to the Berlin Wall. I don't believe the film has ever been released in English.

Checkpoint Sonnenallee (1972)