Another Reality
Noël Dernesch, Olli Waldhauer, Germany, Switzerland, 2019o
Five men of Turkish or Middle Eastern descent tell of their lives as members of those criminal clans that have set up mafia-like structures in German cities and make a name for themselves with drug trafficking, extortion and robbery. Another Reality provides an inside view of this clandestine world and also shows different attitudes and developments. While some have a hard time resisting the easy money, others have traded in their gangster existence for a music career or bourgeois existences.
This is not a film that demonises career criminals or simplifies their lifestyle as some kind of moral descent into depravity. Nor does it glamourise their gangster personae, as with a measured concern for the sociological context of their alternative economy, it shows how ambition sometimes finds an outlet when conventional pathways to success are restricted for marginalised communities.
Carmen GreyThe use of the term “clan” in the German media tends to be associated with large Arab families, illegal dealings and young men with impressive beards and even more impressive muscles. Men like Agit, Ahmad, Parham, Kianush and Sinan, who, in Another Reality, give us insight into their (men’s) world that is as irritating as it is surprising, even amusing. They visibly devoted a lot of time and trust to the filmmakers Noël Dernesch and Oliver Wildhauer. In return, the directors give their protagonists plenty of room for their self-portrayal rendered in cool and temperate images. […]
Neither preachy nor naively admiring, the Swiss and German filmmakers Demesch and Wildhauer leave it up to the audience to decide whether it wants to react to the confessions of the protagonists with concern or sympathy. Either way: Agit and the others are characters that you won't forget in a hurry.
Julia MarxCe puissant documentaire de Noël Dernesch et Olli Waldhauer met en scène une société parallèle où domine la loi du plus fort.
Muriel Del DonGalleryo
