"Sonne und Beton" is a fairly new German movie, a 2023 release that stays minimally under the two-hour mark and has made some pretty impressive waves recently. Maybe it would even be the favorite at the German Film Awards this year if it wasn't for this successful war-themed film that has triumphed in America even, but we will see how many awards this one here can take. Four nominations is pretty solid and as for the big category, the second and third are also announced, it can still become a really successful night then. We will see. The international title here is the literal translation, namely "Sun and Concrete". The film premiered at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival and looking at the amount of people who watched it and factors like the film's imdb rating, it has definitely not disappointed one bit. If I am not mistaken, it is based on a book written by Felix Lobrecht and he is among Germany's most successful stand-up comedians at this point, so he surely has taken his career to the next level with the success of this film. I am not an expert on him, but I think that many segments from the book are also based on his own memories of growing-up in this rather southern area of Berlin. It is my city as well, so the film did have a bit of a personal note for me, even if I cannot say that I recognized many areas here or that it brought a great amount of nostalgia. Then again, this (Gropiusstadt) was not the area where I grew up. Had this been the case, I maybe would have seen it otherwise, but probably not even then. Also, this area is definitely one where you would not want to grow up and I am fairly sure that Martin Gropius is more proud of a certain museum being named after him than this pretty ghetto area of Berlin.
However, before I go into detail about the plot and everything else here that is directly linked to the story, let's keep looking a bit more at the basics: The writer and director is David Wnendt. This name is even for us Germans difficult to pronounce with how it starts. But yeah, you can say that Wnendt in the first half of the 2010s has really worked only on German films that really easily made it into the most known from my country. Kinda interesting that the films that started all this centered around female characters. After 2015, it has gotten a bit quiet around him, but with this film here, he is definitely back with a bang. And he is still a few years under the age of 50, so we can probably expect more interesting releases from him for another 25 years. I am curious what will come, even if I am not as big on him as many others are and one of his films I even despise and see no quality in whatsoever, but this film we have here is alright, even if not really nothing beyond that either, but that is of course just my opinion. As always with his works, he also took care of the screenplay himself. It is definitely no coincidence that the actors you see in here are not famous at all. Maybe, if at all, you have seen one or two faces in other projects, but for this you also would have to be quite the German film buff already. For me it was one maybe, not more. The actor who portrays protagonist's father. This film here I could see maybe getting remembered in a similar fashion like "Absolute Giganten", a German film from approximately a quarter of a century ago. I cannot even say why the film reminded me of that, but somehow it did. Of course, the protagonists are a few years younger here than in the other film I just mentioned, but still.
I cannot even say the names of the cast members here, the young actors I mean, but yeah I guess they did an alright job. The one that stays in the mind the most for me here would be a character I found extremely unlikable, namely the boy that the initial two pick up early on and the protagonist is not really happy about this and as the story progresses, we also understand why. I mean he really gets the main character into serious trouble. He is beaten up by the Arabs because of the other's provocation. And when the boys then return with their older Turkish friends for revenge, then look at how cocky he is. His behavior really causes a lot of disaster to the main character. The word "disaster" is not even an exaggeration there. Well, I should at best call the Turks "friends" maybe because there is this one scene when we find out they stole money from the Arabs and the main character is the one who has to live with the consequences as he is threatened by the Arabs, one in particular, that he has to come up with the money and return it and the leader of the gang of Turks is also far from helpful there, but denies everything instead. What a champ. Anyway, it is a pretty shocking film. Great deal of blood here and physical injury in general. Bones are broken and this includes fingers and arms and basically you can say that every character in here, no matter how boastful he may be, always has people above him that scare him somehow. It is pretty sad in fact. There are moments that will make you smile because of the regional impact or because they feel shocking yet authentic at the same time, but overall it is a full on drama. And stuff like the furniture guy pick-up line can only distract from that for a brief moment. It was still entertaining. I guess this line shows who is a really good translator or the opposite and I am kinda curious what America or the ones who come up with English subtitles will do with it.
But yeah, the guy I criticized quite a bit because of what he does with/to the main character is also supposed to be seen as one of the good guys I assume towards the end when we have a real moment of friendship between the boys as they go the hospital to visit one of their own who jumped out of the window and tried to commit suicide after knocking out his violent father with a glass bottle. We understand the boy will live, but we do not know about the man. It is not too important. What becomes crucial here, however, is the idea that the area where you live is one that really shapes you. The streets turn you into who you really are. The violence the boy experienced himself at the very beginning may not have taken him over really at the start when he does not attack the guy who hurt him despite having the chance. But he makes an impact in another area, namely burglary and theft when he is really the driving force behind stealing these new computers for the school. But even this he also only does because he needs the money to pay people who have been threatening him that they will do horrible acts if he does not pay. We also get a look into the family lives of the protagonist and others. Just take the (older) boy who is the leader of the Arab gang and what happens when this kid's family sees the two boys together. The reaction of this other nerdy boy character there earlier was quite funny too, how he talks to his brother it was I think. Or take the main character's father and his words how his son should deal with the situation when he is threatened. Those words could not be any more different what his own brother tells him is the best way. No surprise that the main character is struggling so hard with the overall situation. The brother's act towards the end then is also among the most memorable in an actually pretty sad way because it proves that you cannot even trust your family and that personal agenda trumps everything. Well, he had his finger broken too and maybe his little brother would have helped him had he asked, but then the younger brother also would have lost a lot of respect for his older brother and the latter could not allow something like this to happen, so he basically steals the computers from his own brother and the phone conversation there was almost on the funny side with how ironic it is what the older brother has to say there, as if he gives his younger brother even a bit of a life lesson this way.
I guess by now you understood that I liked this film without loving it. It did feel shorter than it was and I stayed curious what would happen next, so Wnendt (and Lobrecht) had drawn me in here. Nice job. I have not read the book this is based on, so I cannot talk about similarities and differences between the two media, but it's not a must anyway. Oh yeah, one more thing I must mention here is really how horrible it must be or have been back then to work as a teacher in this district of Berlin. Honestly, I cannot even say if things have improved since when this film is set (Lobrecht's youth I suppose), but there are definitely parts of Berlin that you maybe want to stay away from. Anyway, as for the teacher, you could also see what all these verbal and even physical humiliations have turned him into as he sounds like a bit of a racist on one occasion. Can you blame him? The one thing he was nonetheless is dedicated and he tried to make an impact, see at least one of his students successfully get out of the area and perhaps study one day. Maybe it was also more for him to see that he achieved something than necessarily for the student(s) itself. If he knew that it was the protagonist who stole the computers... Talk about shattered perceptions then. But he never finds out. So yeah, the helpless, powerlessness of it all could not be any more visible with all of them basically: the teachers (who even get bullied by the principal(s)), the police officers as well and also the parents. The moment these three groups are not directly and immediately present in the lives of these kids, they are literally forgotten and sometimes even when they are present. The police are depicted as especially incompetent here and not capable of dealing with certain situations at all. The ghetto kids won you could say. I think it is a film that is solid overall, but also very depressing. Accurate maybe too, the exaggerations are there, but they kinda make sense. I think this one is worth seeing. I give it a thumbs-up and this was never really in doubt.
However, before I go into detail about the plot and everything else here that is directly linked to the story, let's keep looking a bit more at the basics: The writer and director is David Wnendt. This name is even for us Germans difficult to pronounce with how it starts. But yeah, you can say that Wnendt in the first half of the 2010s has really worked only on German films that really easily made it into the most known from my country. Kinda interesting that the films that started all this centered around female characters. After 2015, it has gotten a bit quiet around him, but with this film here, he is definitely back with a bang. And he is still a few years under the age of 50, so we can probably expect more interesting releases from him for another 25 years. I am curious what will come, even if I am not as big on him as many others are and one of his films I even despise and see no quality in whatsoever, but this film we have here is alright, even if not really nothing beyond that either, but that is of course just my opinion. As always with his works, he also took care of the screenplay himself. It is definitely no coincidence that the actors you see in here are not famous at all. Maybe, if at all, you have seen one or two faces in other projects, but for this you also would have to be quite the German film buff already. For me it was one maybe, not more. The actor who portrays protagonist's father. This film here I could see maybe getting remembered in a similar fashion like "Absolute Giganten", a German film from approximately a quarter of a century ago. I cannot even say why the film reminded me of that, but somehow it did. Of course, the protagonists are a few years younger here than in the other film I just mentioned, but still.
I cannot even say the names of the cast members here, the young actors I mean, but yeah I guess they did an alright job. The one that stays in the mind the most for me here would be a character I found extremely unlikable, namely the boy that the initial two pick up early on and the protagonist is not really happy about this and as the story progresses, we also understand why. I mean he really gets the main character into serious trouble. He is beaten up by the Arabs because of the other's provocation. And when the boys then return with their older Turkish friends for revenge, then look at how cocky he is. His behavior really causes a lot of disaster to the main character. The word "disaster" is not even an exaggeration there. Well, I should at best call the Turks "friends" maybe because there is this one scene when we find out they stole money from the Arabs and the main character is the one who has to live with the consequences as he is threatened by the Arabs, one in particular, that he has to come up with the money and return it and the leader of the gang of Turks is also far from helpful there, but denies everything instead. What a champ. Anyway, it is a pretty shocking film. Great deal of blood here and physical injury in general. Bones are broken and this includes fingers and arms and basically you can say that every character in here, no matter how boastful he may be, always has people above him that scare him somehow. It is pretty sad in fact. There are moments that will make you smile because of the regional impact or because they feel shocking yet authentic at the same time, but overall it is a full on drama. And stuff like the furniture guy pick-up line can only distract from that for a brief moment. It was still entertaining. I guess this line shows who is a really good translator or the opposite and I am kinda curious what America or the ones who come up with English subtitles will do with it.
But yeah, the guy I criticized quite a bit because of what he does with/to the main character is also supposed to be seen as one of the good guys I assume towards the end when we have a real moment of friendship between the boys as they go the hospital to visit one of their own who jumped out of the window and tried to commit suicide after knocking out his violent father with a glass bottle. We understand the boy will live, but we do not know about the man. It is not too important. What becomes crucial here, however, is the idea that the area where you live is one that really shapes you. The streets turn you into who you really are. The violence the boy experienced himself at the very beginning may not have taken him over really at the start when he does not attack the guy who hurt him despite having the chance. But he makes an impact in another area, namely burglary and theft when he is really the driving force behind stealing these new computers for the school. But even this he also only does because he needs the money to pay people who have been threatening him that they will do horrible acts if he does not pay. We also get a look into the family lives of the protagonist and others. Just take the (older) boy who is the leader of the Arab gang and what happens when this kid's family sees the two boys together. The reaction of this other nerdy boy character there earlier was quite funny too, how he talks to his brother it was I think. Or take the main character's father and his words how his son should deal with the situation when he is threatened. Those words could not be any more different what his own brother tells him is the best way. No surprise that the main character is struggling so hard with the overall situation. The brother's act towards the end then is also among the most memorable in an actually pretty sad way because it proves that you cannot even trust your family and that personal agenda trumps everything. Well, he had his finger broken too and maybe his little brother would have helped him had he asked, but then the younger brother also would have lost a lot of respect for his older brother and the latter could not allow something like this to happen, so he basically steals the computers from his own brother and the phone conversation there was almost on the funny side with how ironic it is what the older brother has to say there, as if he gives his younger brother even a bit of a life lesson this way.
I guess by now you understood that I liked this film without loving it. It did feel shorter than it was and I stayed curious what would happen next, so Wnendt (and Lobrecht) had drawn me in here. Nice job. I have not read the book this is based on, so I cannot talk about similarities and differences between the two media, but it's not a must anyway. Oh yeah, one more thing I must mention here is really how horrible it must be or have been back then to work as a teacher in this district of Berlin. Honestly, I cannot even say if things have improved since when this film is set (Lobrecht's youth I suppose), but there are definitely parts of Berlin that you maybe want to stay away from. Anyway, as for the teacher, you could also see what all these verbal and even physical humiliations have turned him into as he sounds like a bit of a racist on one occasion. Can you blame him? The one thing he was nonetheless is dedicated and he tried to make an impact, see at least one of his students successfully get out of the area and perhaps study one day. Maybe it was also more for him to see that he achieved something than necessarily for the student(s) itself. If he knew that it was the protagonist who stole the computers... Talk about shattered perceptions then. But he never finds out. So yeah, the helpless, powerlessness of it all could not be any more visible with all of them basically: the teachers (who even get bullied by the principal(s)), the police officers as well and also the parents. The moment these three groups are not directly and immediately present in the lives of these kids, they are literally forgotten and sometimes even when they are present. The police are depicted as especially incompetent here and not capable of dealing with certain situations at all. The ghetto kids won you could say. I think it is a film that is solid overall, but also very depressing. Accurate maybe too, the exaggerations are there, but they kinda make sense. I think this one is worth seeing. I give it a thumbs-up and this was never really in doubt.