CHRISTIANE F.
WIR KINDER VOM BAHNHOF ZOO

 

BY ULRICH EDEL

 

 

Shot with a low budget in 1980, but set around 1975 in West Berlin, this film shocked European audiences and soon acquired cult status. The heroin plague that swept Western Europe at that time, killing many of European youth, had yet to become apparent to the public. The film depicts in realistic detail all the proceedings of heroin addiction. 13-year-old Christiane tries heroin for the first time when attending a David Bowie concert. Gradually she becomes drawn deeper into the drugs, and joins the Bahnhof Zoo scene, notorious for the drug and sex trade in its underpasses. She begins prostituting herself, imitating her boyfriend who also sells himself to homosexual clients. She debases herself to abysmal levels. Christiane and her cohorts are seen losing consciousness in decrepit lavataory cublicles amidst urine, vomit and blood, injecting in close-ups, re-filling syringes directly from the toilet bowl. Finally Christiane tries to overdose... 

In German/English subtitles
          ~ 125 minutes
Admission free