Sven Marquardt, Smiley Baldwin, and Frank Künster were mainstays of Berlin nightlife, becoming famous at Berghain, Delicious Donuts, and King Size in the late 1990s and by some miracle still protecting access to the city’s most famous clubs today.
Director David Dietl was able to depict the frontier situation in which his characters find themselves. He balanced delicately at the point between club and everyday life, seeing them off in the evening and meeting them at dawn. We share their discomfort at a class reunion, their joy at meeting hundreds of friends, and their nostalgia for times when one club could influence an epoch, and one bouncer an entire club.
The main character is Sven Marquardt, the legendary bouncer at Berghain, who charms with his self-control and ability to say “no.” Behind the mask of tattoos and piercings is the vulnerable sole of a responsible and conscientious person who jokes that after his death he will queue for Bosch’s hell and not get in.
The film will be screened in German and English with Russian subtitles.
Berlin Bouncer
Director David Dietl
Germany, 2019, 87 min. 18+