Stau - Jetzt geht's los!

Combat boots, a shaven head, bomber jacket; the visual appearance of the youngsters who Thomas Heise accompanies in JAMMED – LET’S GET MOVING invites viewers to detach themselves. Images of arsonists and rioting youths have been all too present since the fall of the Berlin Wall after all. This becomes increasingly difficult in the course of the film however, as the protagonists make an unsuccessful attempt at baking a cake. Unsure about the future, work, how to behave and, when in discussion with their parents, confronted with a mixture of helplessness and pushback when they voice their right-wing slogans. The film thus also evolves into a portrait of the parents' generation, unstable social ties, that which was repressed in the GDR and the economic uncertainties of the post-reunification period. WHY A FILM ABOUT THESE PEOPLE? was the title of Heise's first film, and this question runs through both his documentary work and the reactions to it. After all Heise himself does not claim to explain what is shown, but instead simply looks and listens. RB