From the neighborhood to the cape

On Friday evening the time had finally come and the road movie “From the neighborhood to the cape“ premiered. The plot is basically about two players from FC St. Pauli who, in a drunken mood, drive their van from the neighborhood to Cape Town. That was back in 2010, when FC St. Pauli was playing for promotion and the World Cup followed in South Africa. The fact that the film can only be presented to the public now shows how difficult it is to present moving images outside of the Hollywood machine. finance.

OK, it's also a very special film. Anyone expecting impressive landscape images from distant countries will be disappointed. This film has its strongest moments when two FC St. Pauli fans try somewhere in Africa an important live game to pursue. Again and again, the course of FC St. Pauli's second division season is the basis for the stories of the two van drivers. In addition to depicting the route on a map, a special narrative form is created about the journey over time. This is lost with promotion and it is not even half as interesting as two traveling football players are happy about the German team winning their first game at the 2010 World Cup. But actually the two travelers should have been in Cape Town long ago. On trips like this, not everything goes as planned. At some point, despite all the circumstances, they arrive in Cape Town.

The film was shown on Friday as part of the “Film Nights at Millerntor” and it was packed. I estimate that two and a half thousand people came. There is probably no more fitting setting for this film than showing it at Millerntor. It would be nice if the film could find a distributor and other venues. “From the Kiez to the Cape” is great entertainment – ​​at least for fans of FC St. Pauli. Or as my neighbor put it so beautifully at the end of the film: “These little stories are exactly the reason why I love this club so much.” That’s right!