Ich kenn keinen – Allein unter Heteros

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In big cities, discrimination against homosexuality and a gay way of life is not a big issue anymore. Gay mayors and football club association presidents are no longer colourful exceptions to the rule, rather they have become an expression of normality. In rural areas,however, the definition of what is normal is quite different. Out here, normal means a husband, wife and children – the nuclear family. In the country, expressions such as “bloody poofter” are still common parlance and mothers are ashamed if their sons fail to bring home a girlfriend. Hartmut, Richard, Stefan and Uwe are all gay men who live in the country. They punctuate their rural existence with brief but regular sojourns in Berlin, Zurich or Thailand. These four men have learned to live with the fact that their lifestyle is met with a volley of abuse from their heterosexual friends and acquaintances in the church choir and at the local pub. Jochen Hick’s film provides an insight into a largely unknown world. The audience follows the lives of the protagonists via the comments of their heterosexual environment. Expressed in the local dialect, the often comical and regularly surprising comments on homosexuality demonstrate just how deep the gulf is between what is supposedly normal and what comprises a deviation from the norm. The film provides a bitterly comical portrait of a heterosexual perspective on gay men in Germany’s country towns.

details

  • Runtime

    100 min
  • Country

    Germany
  • Year of Presentation

    2003
  • Year of Production

    2003
  • Director

    Jochen Hick
  • Cast

    Hartmut Alber, Stefan Braun, Uwe Furtwängler, Erika Micale
  • Production Company

    Galeria Alaska Productions
  • Berlinale Section

    Panorama
  • Berlinale Category

    Documentary Film
  • Teddy Award Winner

    Best Documentary/ Essay Film

Biography Jochen Hick

Born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1960, he studied film at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg and also in Bologna between 1981 and 1987. He has worked as a freelance writer, journalist, director and producer for film and television. In 1994 he founded his own production company, Galeria Alaska Productions. Between 2007 and 2010 he was editor-in-chief and deputy director of programming at TIMM TV channel. Out in Ost-Berlin – Lesben und Schwule in der DDR (Out in East Berlin – Lesbians and Gays in the GDR) screened in Panorama in 2013, and Der Ost-Komplex (The GDR Complex) in 2016.

Filmography Jochen Hick

1992 Willkommen in Dom | 1995 Menmaniacs - The Legacy of Leather | 1998 Sex/Life in L.A | 2000 No One Sleeps