The new Berlin Christiane F. for the 21st century – BZ Berlin

Oliver Ohmann

An Amazon remake tells the story of the children from Zoo Station as a TV series. BZ took a look at the new series in advance.

 The  story of the drug girl Christiane F. hit like a bomb 43 years ago. At 12 hashish, at 13 heroin, at 14 on the line. It was only through the fate of the Berliner – which she told two “Stern” reporters herself – that the drug problem in Germany came into the limelight.

 The  book “Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo” became a bestseller in 1978 and a movie in 1981.

 The  book and film were read and shown in schools. Christiane’s story shaped a generation, she herself became a star and myth, had relapses and is still fighting against addiction to this day.

Now comes a new Christiane F. – a TV series shows the story of the new children from Bahnhof Zoo.

 The  Amazon Prime production is based on the true story of Christiane Felscherinow (now 58) and the tapes that she discussed in 1978.

In a total of around six hours, the eight episodes tell even more.

 The y also dedicate themselves to Christiane’s friends, their families and their own fates. Some people were invented to do this, and experiences were painted out.

BZ has seen the new series “We children from Bahnhof Zoo” in advance.

 The  production is an event and an important chapter in an old, but unfortunately still current problem: On the one hand, young people and deadly drugs. On the other hand, the complicity and helplessness of adults.

 The  first film was – just like the book – one thing above all else: education and warning. But 45 years after Christiane F. first used heroin in 1976 (after a David Bowie concert), the world has changed. Berlin has changed, fashion, music, the scene.

What remained are parents who do not understand their children and do not know what they are doing. And children who see adults as monsters or philistines and their own future without perspective.

 The re are still desolate residential areas in Berlin, violence in families and more drugs than ever.

 The  new film adaptation should appeal to the new generation. Anyone who wants to educate and warn about drugs today needs a Christiane F. for the 21st century.

That’s why you don’t really know what time the series will take place. You don’t see computers or cell phones, but the music in the “Sound” disco is modern.

 The  clothes that Christiane’s clique wears are 70s, but the children’s problems are timeless: there is the longing for freedom and happiness on the one hand – there are parents, teachers and philistines on the other.

 The  drug is supposed to be the solution – and in reality it becomes the entrance to a journey to hell. Which never really ended for the real Christiane F.

She still takes methadone to this day.

 The  heroin substitute, which she doesn’t tolerate well. She said: “If I had the chance, I would never touch a drug. I would immediately give up my success with the first book, all the acquaintances I have made since then, my money, the fame, everything – if only I could be a perfectly normal girl with no drug problem! ”

Anyone who knows the current drug scene in Berlin knows: It was high time for a new film adaptation of the most important drug book of our time. Children from high school should see them – and so should their parents.

 The  shock that they may experience can be healing. Because the film is honest, without make-up and kitschy myth – and therefore hard to endure. But it works, now as it was then.

Dealing with Christiane F.’s fate is a vaccination. In the best case, this vaccination protects against the hell of a trip to drugs.

 The  eight episodes of the new series start on Friday on Amazon Prime Video.

 The  world premiere of the first two episodes already on Thursday on BILD live.

As a clique, they race through the devilish heroin hell

Jana McKinnon embodies CHRISTIANE F. in the eight parts of the remake. Even as a small child, the 21-year-old was in front of the camera. As the daughter of an Austrian and an Australian, McKinnon grew up Down Under and Vienna.

In 2015 she played her first leading role in cinema in “Beautiful Girl”, followed by “Wach”, the drama “To  The  Night” and a “Tatort”.

 The  Austrian only got the role of Christiane F. four weeks before shooting started in 2019. Producer Oliver Berben (49) was enthusiastic about her emotional expression: “She looked into the camera and I said: That’s her!”

Michelangelo Fortuzzi (20) plays the role of BENNO (Detlef in the book and film).  The  Berliner played in the episode film “Berlin, I Love You” and in the family drama “Alles Isy”. Experienced young actors also play the other roles in the new series.

 The  21-year-old Berliner Lena Urzendowsky (“Kokon”, “How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast)”) is Christiane’s best friend STELLA (Lena’s brother Sebastian plays Christiane’s father). Bruno Alexander (22) from Hamburg plays Benno’s friend MICHI and the Munich actor Jeremias Meyer (22), who is known from the “Vampire Sisters” films, plays AXEL, who is unhappy in love with Christiane.

Lea Drinda (“ The  Last Children in Paradise”) is the youngest actress to play one of the six leading roles.

 The  19-year-old plays BABSI, the talented, desperate chick of the heroin clique.

In 1981 the material became a sensational worldwide hit in the cinema

In 1981, many moviegoers were convinced that real fixers played in the film about the children from the Zoo station. But junkies were only seen as extras in the background in a few scenes.  The  then 13-year-old Natja Brunckhorst (now 56) played Christiane F. Like most other actors, she was in front of the camera for the first time.

Gropiusstadt, Bahnhof Zoo, the “Sound” on Genthiner Straße, Kurfürstenstraße-Strich – the film was shot at the original locations. It was the breakthrough for the young producer Bernd Eichinger (then 29). He made sure that David Bowie even performed and provided the soundtrack. His concert was shot in New York, however.

Director Uli Edel (73) discussed the script intensively with the real Christiane before filming, and she also accepted it. But the premiere on April 2, 1981 left it prematurely. She couldn’t stand the portrayal of her own life.

 The  force of the film was too intense (released from 16). “Christiane F.” became the most successful German movie of the eighties, was also an international hit, grossing almost 5 million dollars in the USA alone.  The  low budget 40 years ago: $ 2.7 million.

 The  new TV series cost about ten times as much.

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This is how heroin works

Heroin is obtained in a chemical process from raw opium of the opium poppy. Doctors used to use it as a pain reliever. Junkies experience a short, intense “flash”.

 The n the drug dampens all mental activity, perceptions are faded out.

 The  opiate quickly makes psychologically and physically dependent. Dealers stretch the white or brownish powder with substances such as glucose, flour or strychnine. “H” (pronounced: Äitsch) is “sniffed” by consumers through the nose, heated and inhaled or smoked. Usually, however (liquefied and heated with lemon juice) injected. So it immediately penetrates the brain through the blood.