The grey brutalist apartment ghettos we in Sweden call the "million programme", familiar to anyone who has lived in Northern or Eastern Europe, or in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik itself, are not pretty places. They tend to feel isolating, overbearing, inhuman and soulless, and these areas tend to eventually house the rough boys, the gangs. Shot in Marzahn-Berlin, this video is based on the photo series “Loose Ends” by award-winning photographer Si Wachsmann. "It follows a group of boys on an adventure in the rough neighbourhood, as they escape their harsh reality to a place where boys can be boys." The rough boys are Sebastian, Alex, and Kuba, who smoke and fight and blow off steam. They look like Polish supermodels to me, so when the eventual fight begins, I start worrying about their pretty faces.
Director Adi Halfin wanted to continue the narrative that Wachsmann, her frequent collaborator and real-life partner, had established with “Loose Ends” and Lief joined forces with record label LuckyMe to add S-Type’s first single from his upcoming album ‘S-Type-Beat’ as the score for this story.
Despite the ghetto surroundings, it looks a little surreal and dreamy, with a sweeping aesthetic that feels almost fragile, and somewhat homoerotic. The close-up portraits deliver glimpses of their emotional world. They are frustrated, they are angry, they feel hopelessness, they feel dejected. Sentiments that generations who grew up in concrete jungles like these have felt.
Halfin felt the desire to film 'boys being boys' due to her tendency to express extreme emotions in her work;
"I like things that come from the gut and not from the head. And there’s something about this period of adolescence that I find fascinating, especially when it comes to boys. The borders of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are not always clear and you constantly want to test your limits and the limits of your environment. Every emotion is magnified, and a small game can easily turn into something extremely violent. There’s something fearless and careless about this age and it connects to primeval feelings - jealousy, anger, love, sexual attraction – it’s all out there, with no filters.”
CREDITS ‘Waiting’
A project by Si Wachsmann & Adi Halfn
Cast: Alexander Lukowski, Sebastian Dabkowski, Jakub Werra
Production Company: Lief
Music: ‘Waiting’ S-Type via LuckyMe
Record Label Founder: Dominic Flannigan
Production Company (Berlin): True Motion Pictures
Director: Adi Halfin
DoP: Si Wachsmann
Producer: Margo Mars
Producer: Alexander Papastawrou
Production Manager: Miriam Henri
Editor: Shahar Amarilio
Colour Grading: Maria Carretero, Framestore
Colour Grading Producer: Rachel Cohen, Framestore
Hair & Makeup: Claudia Fischer
Art Director: Shira Wachsmann
AC: Lisa Dutschmann
Lighting Assistant: Julian Hemelberg
Production Assistants: Svenja Nagel, Alex Moore, Jakob Wiechsmann
Location: FELiX Wohngenossenschaft eG (Frau Lüttke)
House Manager: Uwe Illert
Special thanks: Max Zimmermann, Peggy Geibig, Maya Lu, Yaro Blo, Kalle Kallovsky, JMP Agency
Camera and lenses kindly supplied by Canon.
About LuckyMe
LuckyMe is a record label and design studio specialising in the release of new electronic, hip-hop, pop, rock and underground dance music. Referred to as ‘one of the most innovative and prolific independent record labels of the decade’ and acclaimed for ‘distinctive visual arts projects and collaborations’.
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