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Jeden Monat nähern sich unsere Kolumnisten, die Berliner Filmemacher Dominik und Benjamin Reding, dem jeweiligen Heftthema
auf ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise. Geboren wurden die Zwillinge am 3. Ja nuar 1969 in Dortmund. Während Dominik Architektur
in Aachen und Film in Hamburg studierte, absolvierte Benjamin ein Schauspielstudium in Stuttgart. 1997 begann die Arbeit an
ihrem ersten gemeinsamen Kinofilm „Oi! Warning“. Seitdem arbeiten sie für Fernseh- und Kinofilmprojekte zusammen.

Each month our columnists, Berlin-based filmmakers Dominik and Benjamin Reding, approach the respective issue-specific
theme in their very personal way. The twins were born on January 3, 1969 in Dortmund. Whilst Dominik studied architecture
in Aachen and film in Hamburg, Benjamin graduated in acting studies in Stuttgart. They started working on their first joint
motion picture “Oi! Warning“ in 1997. Since then they have tightly collaborated for TV and cinema film projects.

M r Drabert had suggested where to meet. The well-known, feared and yet anxiously designed this? “In your book, this student, he really acts very emotionally, highly impul-
sively, almost anarchistically. Do you really find this credible?” Mr Drabert sized me up.
awaited Mr Drabert. I didn’t know the restaurant. Even though it was no more than
just an easy walk from my doorstep. The Ammazza che Pizza, the “I could kill for pizza!” “Change this and we will start talking.” He downed the rest of the coke, hastily, the ice
Mr Drabert was an editor of the government film funding commission. He was able to dis- cubes clinked in the glass, and left without looking back. “Who designed all this here?”
tribute money. If he liked the script. Plenty of money. If he felt like it. In most cases, he The waiter looked at me without understanding. “Che cosa?” Wow, he really spoke
didn’t. This was where it was to happen, the meeting that would decide everything. Italian. “The architect … l´architetto?” The waiter nodded. “Barenboim!” His German was-
Thumbs up or down, script accepted or rejected. Money yes or no, new film or nothing. n’t easy to understand. Really? Did the famous conductor now also design pizza places?
My plot for a new, the student who is transferred to another school and infects a whole “No, no, Peter Behrbohm.” He wrote it down on a receipt. “Grazie.”
grade with his urge for freedom, his zest for life, and pays dearly for it. A lot of lifeblood, Peter Behrbohm’s employee and colleague Yana Kyuchukova was already waiting. In the
many months of writing had gone into it. Of course, Mr Drabert arrived late. All those who Ammazza che Pizza, four days later, over a glass of water. I had looked and found on the
are important arrive late; one has to wait for kings, that is part of the game. They arrive web: Peter Behrbohm had designed an “Archive of the Futures”, in 2014, as a diploma
too late and leave too early because they still have an “important appointment”. thesis, located in the underground worlds of the Berlin Alexanderplatz, had converted a
Whenever editors smile when saying hello, one has lost. Then they don’t like the whole glass container right there, in the “Alex”, into a flat and secretly spent some months in
story and look forward to rejecting it and picking it to pieces which sends happy shivers there and he had made a film, about Johannes Uhl, the architect of the Neues
down their spines. If the evaluation of the script is positive, then they look serious, almost Kreuzberger Zentrum residential tower sur-
grim because they fear the responsibility of rounded by scandal. He came by bike. T-shirt,
having to say yes. Should they at first look seri- backpack, long hair under a colourful cap.
ous and then friendly, then it becomes diffi- Young and lanky. I asked about his models,
cult, then a long ordeal lies ahead. The best about Memphis design, about Sottsass, the
would be if the editors had concrete wishes. planning time and the budget and about the
This character to be taken out, here a sentence design idea, of course. “It was meant to be
to be omitted, there a little joke to be added. fun”, he replied. With two friends, a joiner
They worst is if they only say: “more love” or and a metal worker, he had made the interior
“more humour” or “more action”, “more furnishing. I began to wonder. Had there been
drama”, “more realism”. Then you start again any planning after all? Or was everything just
from scratch. “We have to hurry up, I still have the result of hours of creative tinkering, a suc-
an important appointment”, Mr Drabert said, cess just by chance. Whether there were
ordered a coke with ice and looked first seri- sketches, drawings, I tentatively asked. He
ous and then smiled. A thin, anticipatory nodded and pulled three thick notebooks
smile. “There is, in fact, quite a lot missing in from his backpack.
your script. More realism would be good There are architects whose early drawings
above all.” And, for a brief moment, I thought don’t make you feel anything, not a hint of a
I saw triumph shining in his eyes. He took a later exceptional talent. Mies van der Rohe,
deep breath and opened the script as if it were Bruno Taut, Hans Poelzig, their first drawings
as heavy and as exciting as an old phonebook. Fotos: Benjamin Reding merely docile homework. And then there are
“Now let’s go over the various little problem architects in whose first sketches there is
zones in your opus magnum, shall we?” already something flaring up, idiosyncratic,
The Ammazza che Pizza looked like an espres- unusual, unmistakable, a promise of what is
so bar in Milan which Matteo Thun had designed. No, which Matteo Thun, Ettore to come. Peter Behrbohm’s notebooks were filled with drawings, not sketches, since noth-
Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini and the best designers from Alchimia, Memphis and ing was still an on-going search here, not a line was shaky, no stroke placed too often.
Superstudio had jointly designed in a particularly creative moment. And, no, the restau- Here someone had already found, page by page, design by design. Chairs, luminaires,
rant actually even looked much better. The more Mr Drabert took the script apart, the counters, door handles, coat hooks, nothing was random and everything was full of self-
more I looked around and the more I was amazed. This small, harmless corner restaurant confidence, playful, humorous, without angst as to the “market”, “commission”, and
was incredible. The walls in part covered with square grids of mirrors, in part painted in “success”. I turned the pages, was amazed and fell silent. I was worried. Exceptional tal-
a zebra pattern, lemon yellow and pale pink, the chairs unique pieces with steel-tube ents, they need their clients, they need publicity, they need bold people who have confi-
backrests, thin and light-weight, powder-coated in dusky pink and greenish blue, com- dence in the up-and-coming professionals. They also need luck! “Do you feel vulnera-
bined with a heavy, angular seat of light ash wood; the counter sawn with jags reminding ble?”, it simply slipped out. But he only looked at me amicably and shrugged his shoul-
of teeth, showcases reminding of mouths, a steel pizza oven reminding of a rocket or a ders: “Nope.”
hat or a goblin – and all this taken together reminding of the ambiguous, sprayed pic- It was getting dark outside. The warmth of the day disappeared; one could smell the city,
tograms by Keith Haring. Even the coat hooks were not simply coat hooks but projected earthy, rough. Yes, I would change the script, above all the main character. I would make
from the wall like the arms and legs of little monsters living in the mortar. Who had it freer, bolder, more rebellious. I breathed in the air. Ammazza che libertà!

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