OUR BOOZE (2011)

Original title: Giftchen

I would love to tell you that alcohol is bad and bloody dangerous, but it doesn’t seem to be just as simple. My mother is an alcoholic. She started drinking when I was still little, but i never noticed it. Or never wanted to. She has been dry for 6 years, and slowly I began to put the pieces of our past together and tried to make sense of it. I think I should know better now. But still, I run a bar in Berlin Neukölln and can’t imagine my life without it. Because the stuff brings us so much hope and warmth, that we easily forget about the hangover. Sometimes it seems to be the cause and the solution to all our problems. During the making of this movie I met three other alcoholics. Karin, Oliver and Rolf showed me their life, told me their stories and I began to raise the question: Why is it so hard for us to keep our hands off the stuff? But I guess there is no simple answer. Because it would have to be as unique and unconventional as any person behind the sheer word "alcoholic".