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Jeden Monat nähern sich unsere Kolumnisten, die Berliner Filme - Each month our columnists, Berlin-based filmmakers Dominik and
macher Dominik und Benjamin Reding, dem jeweiligen Heftthema auf Benjamin Reding, approach the respective issue-specific theme in
ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise. Geboren wurden die Zwillinge am 3. their very personal way. The twins were born on January 3, 1969.
Ja nuar 1969 in Dortmund. Während Dominik Architektur und Film Whilst Dominik studied architecture in Aachen and film in Hamburg,
studierte, absolvierte Benjamin ein Schauspielstudium. 1997 begann Benjamin graduated in acting studies in Stuttgart. They started
die Arbeit an ihrem ersten gemeinsamen Kinofilm „Oi! Warning“. working on their first joint motion picture “Oi! Warning“ in 1997.

A trip to Italy is always a good decision. If you arrived at the airport and the traffic block and weak in content! I stopped in front of a door. It was rather a portal, four floors
high, surrounded by Marmo Nero. What might be behind it? The Ministry of Truth? A
was jammed up to the city centre, you would bristle with rage in your home coun-
try. There you think, well, what the heck, that's just wonderfully Italian! If there was a church? Caesar's bedroom or at least the consulate general of a world power? I went in.
demonstration in the city centre and a strike in the suburbs and no taxi or subway would It was a bank. Cool and polished emptiness inside, 15 metres high, 30 metres wide.
take you to the hotel, you would say to yourself: oh, what a beautiful, typically Italian ex- Counters made of Carrara marble, a frosted glass ceiling, a mosaic in gold and red, For-
perience! The hotel under reconstruction? The restaurant on the ground floor closed? Five tuna and her cornucopia, and, as so often in Italy, immaculate architectural details
cats meowing on the garbage bins in the backyard at night? Ah, wonderful, that's Italy! from the door handle to the lamp socket. Only few customers waited in front of the
Maybe that is wrong, maybe one should shout out more correctly: oh, it is wonderfully counters, ATMs and LED screens displaying stock exchange data. Quiet conversations,
European; or: oh, how wonderfully diverse; or: oh, that's just like at home. But you shout, the crackling and creaking of computer keyboards. And then, in the soft, almost sacred
think, feel: oh, how beautifully Italian! The Goethe-Institut in Milan showed one of my silence, an exclamation, dissonant like a cry: "Dio mi aiuti!" Next, a torrent of words,
films, I was asked to say something about it, there was a press conference especially or- loud and angry. "Blocchi il suo conto! Lui ha rubato tutto, tutti i nostri soldi, li ha ritirati
ganised and they invited me, all this was very kind, all this was very nice. dalla banca ed e´scappato! Una canaglia, un impostore, lui l´ha ingannata! " An old
On the Autostrada from Malpensa Airport there was no getting through, congested all lady, looking typically Italian in her black faux fur coat, big, fashionable glasses, her
the way into the city, and a political assembly of the Cinque Stelle movement blocked black patent leather handbag, her white, well-groomed hair, stood in front of one of
the inner-city ring road. When I finally reached the Istituto Goethe, the press conference the counters and banged her small, wrinkled fists on the marble countertop. "Le ha
had been over for two hours. But people just grumbled a little, offered me coffee and promesso il suo amore, e poi l´ha cacciata. La mia povera amata figlia!" A young,
cookies, showed me to the hotel and then left me to myself. The sky was grey, the we- blonde, pale woman stood next to her, holding her by her fur sleeves. The old lady sta-
ather cool, it was drizzling. A quick espresso in the next small street café, which is, for red at the teenage bank advisor, swayed back and forth as she spoke, a pack of bro-
Northern Europeans somewhat misleading, cal- chures for real estate investments fell to the
led a bar and has absolutely no dim ambience: floor. The customers fell silent, looked shocked
large windows, terrazzo floors, neon signs, just like me. "Gli tolga subito il denaro, per fa-
chrome strips, bar counters and cupboards vore, per favore, la supplico! Che Dio ci aiuti!" I
made of ash and polished glass; the smell of picked up fragments of what was said, of gestu-
strong coffee, sweet amaretto and fresh ice res, facial expressions, thought, interpreted,
cream; the old gentlemen at the high tables, and put things together: The old lady had lost
with hats and suits, dignified, without smug- her money, definitely. Her "soldi", her salary,
ness; the elderly ladies in black coats, with her savings. Swallowed up by zero interest and
grand jewellery and big glasses, bourgeois, but bank speculation. Now she was "povera", poor,
mundane. Oh, how wonderfully Italian or, the a loser of globalisation, stock market records
melodious sound of the language had already and free markets. "Lui le rubera' tutti i soldi, lui
enthralled me, tipico italiano! Milan is no hip- la derubera', lui ci rovinera'. Maledetto ladro
ster hotspot, it's not Berlin, it's not Reykjavik, scellerato! In nome di Dio!" Indeed, "rubera",
it's not Ho Chi Minh City. More of the past be- she had been robbed and the old lady was now
cause of that, more unchanged, and for me, the in a position to bang her fist on the polished
tourist, even more Italian! But here they say countertop and insult the damned banks. Even
Milan is a città tedesca, a German city, so more: "In nome di Dio!", to curse the banks in
punctual, tidy, so unspectacular, cold in winter God's name for ruining the small savers, for
and hard-working. After the visit to the coffee speculating on food prices, for betting on infla-
bar, I walked across the Piazza del Duomo with Foto: Benjamin Reding tion and company failures, for the destruction
its inexorable size that makes the cathedral of hundreds of thousands of jobs. She straighte-
look so small; through Galleria Vittorio Ema- ned herself, raised her arms, trembled. Now at
nuele, recently restored, glossy and smooth, past the always perfectly designed shop last the room, this empty marble hall with its mausoleum look, seemed to have found
windows of the La Rinascente department store; then the barren façade of La Scala, its actual purpose. It serves as a dock, as a place of judgment, as a speaker's stand,
which, like a loyal butler, does not reveal to the outside world which emotions are ra- like the rostra in ancient Rome, on which both the plebs and the emperors roared out
ging inside; and then a brief look at the Pirelli high-rise, this 1950s building resembling their intentions. She would stand up on her tiptoes, raise her fist and scream, rage, cry
a hallway cabinet that was transformed by mysterious Pinocchio magic into a skyscra- until the world would listen, stand up and act. "Mi aiuti! Mi aiuti!" Two security guards
per. Then I turned the corner, into the wide streets left and right of the cathedral, which with broad shoulders, stern eyes, hands in leather gloves approached her; but it was
hardly any architectural guidebook mentions, cut into the urban space of the old city the blonde woman who persuaded the old lady, calmed her down, and finally led her
with imperial force in the 1930s and 1940s by 'Il Duce ha sempre ragione', the always out "She gave you a piece of her mind!" The young man behind the counter looked at
justified leader. The new buildings from that time along streets that are too wide, at me and smiled. "Scusi?" I now explained in English that the elderly lady had severely
squares that are too big and crossroads that are too enormous: an accumulation of ar- criticised the banking system. He shook his head. No, the lady had blocked her
ches, gates, columns, architraves and pilasters, so antiseptic and deadly serious, as if daughter's bank account. Her fiancé had cheated on her and made off and was now
copied from a book about the representation of geometric bodies for the correct calcu- continuing to raid her account. That's all! He pushed the scattered brochures together
lation of shadow constructions. Colosseum quotations for kiosks, spa marble for and added, almost apologetically, "tipico italiano! I admit, I was a little disappointed.
fishmongers, temple columns for post offices! Instant antiquity, as heavy as a marble For once, I would have liked it to be different.

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