Christiane F. Natja Brunckhorst, Thomas Haustein Director: Uli Edel Christiane F. is one of the most harrowing and graphic films to have been filmed in divided Berlin. It shocked viewers around the world on its 1981 release. A story of innocence lost, the film exposed the deadly maelstrom of the Berlin drugs scene in the late 1970s. It showed the human cost of young adults caught up in a cycle of crime, poverty, prostitution and addiction. Christiane F. has a gritty documentary style. This is because it is based on a book by a couple of journalists who chronicled the life and times of the real Christiane F., Hamburg-born Christiane Felscherinow. She came to their attention as a witness in the trial of a man accused of having sex with minors. Intrigued by the spectacle of the haunted young lady in court, they investigated her story. Their tape-recorded interviews with Felscherinow were the basis of a 12-part series in the news weekly Stern, then a best-selling book and this film adaptation. The film opens with Christiane, played by Natja Brunckhorst, living in public housing with her recently divorced and negligent mother. When she falls for a young lad with a self-inked tattoo on his hand, she finds herself dragged into his sordid world. He's a heroin addict, and soon enough she becomes one too. The process towards full-blown addiction is gradual - she tries a few gateway drugs first - but it proves inexorable. Christiane turns from a pretty young thing into a dead-eyed zombie before the viewer's eyes. Close to the end, Christiane is shown crouched beside a public toilet, about to shoot up. A fellow junkie leaps over the cubicle door and grabs her syringe, stealing the hit for himself. This is the film's most powerful expression of the addictive power of the drug. One wonders if it is possible for Christine to fall any lower. Director Ulrich Edel enhanced the film's authenticity with footage of real addicts taken in and around what were the seedier parts of Berlin, particularly in the vicinity of the city's zoo. Edel has directed several movies since Christiane F., but none of them has come close to enjoying the critical acclaim or popular success of his stark, visceral debut. Actress Brunckhorst has since enjoyed a low-key acting career, mainly in TV. The waif she portrayed so memorably, Felscherinow, is today a 49-year-old mother. She is still wrestling with addiction issues and has had minor brushes with the law. The atmospheric Berlin-trilogy-era Bowie soundtrack is superb, and complements the film's bleak mood as perfectly if it had been composed with the screenplay in mind. This is especially true when the Thin White Duke performs his Teutonic masterpiece Station to Station to a rapt Christiane. But soon afterwards she's back in the gutter. That's the promise of the poppy.