Juri Padel’s dystopian film drama “Junk Space Berlin” between psycho-thriller, mystery and science fiction examines social division, marginalisation and abuse, traces the current dangers and opportunities of digitalisation and artificial intelligence and deals with identity politics and new social concepts.
UCM.ONE is bringing the cutting-edge sci-fi thriller “Junk Space Berlin” on the Darling Berlin label to German cinemas nationwide on September 21, 2023.
Between Berlin’s past and a dystopian future, “Junk Space Berlin” by Juri Padel pulsating trip finds cinematic access to the fourth dimension. An inexplicable rift runs through Berlin that seems to split the city in two. When the artificial intelligence “Billie” disappears between these worlds, her friend Marion, with the help of the former activist and hacker Blue, tries to follow her digital trail, which gets lost somewhere in the crack. But the closer they get to Billie, the deeper they penetrate into the marginal deviation of reality. The crack not only fragments the film’s narrative, but also takes us viewers into a world where the boundaries between reality and virtual manipulation have been lost in the digital background noise.
Junk Space Berlin, in parts AI-based, is “mindfuck at it’s best“. Suggestive and full of subversive energy. Trainspotting meets Shakespeare in a Berlin whose division only exists in people’s minds and is therefore all the more present.
An inexplicable rift runs through the dystopian Berlin of tomorrow, into which four outsiders venture on a mission to find their missing friend, the AI Billie. But where does Billie’s trail lead them? And is it all real?
Director’s commentary by Juri Padel
“Junk Space Berlin was created at a time when the Covid 19 pandemic brought a rift into our usual lives, into society, worldwide. Originally, it was to be developed as a multimedia theatre piece. With a team coming from a wide range of art forms, we developed an idiosyncratic style and produced a film that is partly AI-generated, combining the power and abstraction of theatre material with the possibilities of the screen.
As in other works, my artistic focus was on immersive forms and a utopian to sometimes dystopian, often artificial aesthetic. In terms of content, too, my gaze often goes into the future, based on current social discourses. I deal a lot with technologies such as digital surveillance and artificial intelligence, with themes such as racism, social division and new concepts of society. On the one hand, the film Junk Space Berlin is a child of its time, but on the other hand I think it is a radically free and courageous work that has already completed its own turnaround and creates a first “subversive” place where the “new” people experience their future wonderland.
Let me just put it this way: “stranger things” happen in Junk Space Berlin, it’s a modern Shakespearean drama that unfolds in a frightening “Inland Empire dystopia” where four outsiders “Enter The Void” to finally party in a utopian nightclub.”
Film data
| Title: | Junk Space Berlin |
| Director: | Juri Padel |
| Screenplay: | Vera Schindler, Juri Padel |
| Producer: | Juri Padel |
| Actors: | Tamara Semzov (Blue), Thomas Schimanski (Bird), Otiti Engelhardt (Marion), Selin Kavak (Akira), Carolin Haupt, Komi Togbonou, Marta Sroka, Mano Thiravong und Tommi Tokyo (Billie) |
| Genres | Thriller, Mystery, Science-Fiction |
| County: | Germany |
| Year of production: | 2022 |
More information about the film label: Darling Berlin
