The film was based on a book that came out in 1978. The book, in turn, was based on interviews that reporters of the German magazine "Stern" conducted with the real Christiane F., whom they had met in a drug trafficking trial in which she appeared as a witness. The book was a massive best-seller and put the issue of juvenile drug addiction on the political agenda in this country. The film, directed by first-timer Uli Edel, who would later do Last Exit Brooklyn but has worked mainly for TV since then, was a massive success as well. It was filmed on location in what was then West-Berlin, using the real drug scene at Bahnhof Zoo as a background. The cast is more or less all amateur, and the extras were, for the most part, real junkies and/or homeless that used to live in the station. (Those days are, of course, long gone...).
When I watched it a week ago, for the first time since my adolescence, the whole thing screemed "MOODYSSON!" at me. The similarities in cinematographic style are truly amazing. It is hard to believe that Lukas has not been inspired by this movie in making Lilya 4-ever. Like the former, Christiane F. shows nothing but misery, filth, and decay, and is pretty tough to watch. But there is, within every kind of ugliness imaginable, the shining beauty of Natja Brunckhorst, the amazing lead actress, 14 at the time, about the only member of the cast who would later go on to have a career in the film industry (first as an actress, but now mainly as a script writer), and who resembles a lot... I mean, is quite astonishingly similar to... you know... well, some pictures probably say it all:
Here's a link to a small portion of the film, featuring Natja, who is an amazing actress, her angelic beauty very effectively counterbalanced and underlined by the raw, coarse voice of a Berlin backyard gal.
The entire movie in one file is here. But it is anyway well worth renting it to see it in decent quality. Give it a try!
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