Imagine that you could find the spirit and the soul of a neighborhood. This is one of the themes behind Neukölln Wind, a movie about a changing neighborhood and how gentrification can change a place.
Written and directed by Arsenny Rapoport whose life started in Kazakhstan, passed through Israel, Madrid, Naples, and finally stopped in Berlin.
With Berlin, it was love at first sight, where he understood that everyone could be whatever it was possible. Neukölln was the neighborhood he felt especially inspired towards and where he decided to live.
In 2012, he started filming and writing what would become Neukölln Wind. He wanted the movie to become a monument of time, a memorial to what Neukölln used to be and how it used to be to live and walk around the streets.
Neukölln Wind: a movie about change and the soul of a neighborhood
The movie tells the story of a man who grew up in Berlin and had to leave it when his whole house was cleared due to asbestos. Now he is back in Neukölln after a few years, and he wants to buy his old house. He contacts an old friend who now works as a broker.
They talk about how much different the area has become and how they could find the soul and spirit of the area.
We all know gentrification is changing everything about Neukölln. We have been living here since 2012, and a lot has changed. Not only this neighborhood but Berlin has changed a lot; this change is inevitable, and we can see with our own eyes everywhere we go. People come and go to Berlin all the time, and this becomes a melting pot for stories. Stories about a time that will pass that many people want to remember.
This is why Neukölln Wind is such an interesting movie; it becomes a memorial for a time that won’t exist anymore.
Something cool about the movie is that we can recognize a lot of the scenery where the movie was shot. One place that really caught our eye was the shot on top of the abandoned hospital in Neukölln.
If you want to see Neukölln Wind, it will be shown at Il Kino from January 7th to 14th, 2016, with english subtitles. Join us there while we look for the soul of Neukölln.
