Element of Crime in
Wenn es dunkel und kalt
wird in Berlin
('When it gets dark and
cold in Berlin')
a film by Charly Hübner
Charly Hübner's film Wenn es dunkel und kalt wird in Berlin recounts the history and present of a very special German band, the story of Element of Crime. It's about music, friendship, an attitude towards the world and about what it means to make music together for 40 years. Element of Crime got together in 1985 and ever since, it has been almost impossible to imagine the German music scene without them. They are the best-known unknown or unknown well-known band in the German-speaking countries.
What kind of artists are they? How did they become what they are? The director Charly Hübner sensitively explores these questions. He follows the band on a tour through Berlin that was organised especially for this film and leads to places that are representative for the band's development. We see Berlin when it was still defined by being surrounded by a wall, learn of their most important contemporaries, of New York, John Cale, London, Düsseldorf, Ata Tak, the end of German new wave music and the beginning of Element. The film is never nostalgic, never sounds like a yearning for 'the good old days'. The band is way too alive for that – it is essentially at the zenith of its creativity.
After the film, Charly Hübner, Sven Regener, Jakob Friderichs and Richard Pappik will talk to Petra Gute about the film and Element of Crime.
