FILM (1981)

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.