''What to Do in Case of Fire?'' (german: Was tun, wenn's brennt?) is a 2002 German film directed by
Gregor Schnitzler
Gregor Schnitzler (born 1964) is a German film director. He directed more than fifteen films since 1991. His best-known films are '' What to Do in Case of Fire?'' and '' The Cloud'' based on the novel by Gudrun Pausewang.
His father, Conrad, was ...
. It premiered in November 2001 at the German film festival Kinofest
Lünen
Lünen is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located north of Dortmund, on both banks of the River Lippe. It is the largest town of the Unna district and part of the Ruhr Area.
In 2009 a biogas plant was built to provide electric p ...
and was released to theaters in 2002. Part comedy, part action and part drama, the movie is set in contemporary
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and stars German action star
Til Schweiger
Tilman Valentin Schweiger (; born 19 December 1963) is a German actor, voice actor and filmmaker. He runs his own production company, Barefoot Films, in Berlin.
Early life
Schweiger was born in Freiburg, West Germany, to two teachers. He grew ...
.
The film received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Set in Berlin, the film opens in 1987 to show a group of radicals battling police, but soon moves to the modern day to present the same radical characters brought together once more by an act they carried out in their anti-establishment heyday.
In 1987, the main characters of the film are
anarchists
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...
squatting
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
in an abandoned building in
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...
and making propaganda films. In one of these films, they demonstrate how to make a homemade bomb out of a
pressure cooker
Pressure cooking is the process of cooking food under high pressure steam and water or a water-based cooking liquid, in a sealed vessel known as a ''pressure cooker''. High pressure limits boiling, and creates higher cooking temperatures which c ...
and chemicals available over the counter, and they plant the bomb in a vacant villa in
Grunewald Grunewald is the name of both a locality and a forest in Germany:
* Grunewald (forest)
* Grunewald (locality)
Grünewald may refer to:
* Grünewald (surname)
* Grünewald, Germany, a municipality in Brandenburg, Germany
* Grünewald (Luxembourg), ...
. However, the timer sticks, and the bomb does not go off until 12 years later, when it is jostled by a
real estate broker
A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...
and a potential buyer. They are injured in the blast, and the police are pressured to hunt down the "terrorists" responsible.
Two of the original anarchists, Tim (Schweiger) and Hotte (Martin Feifel), still live in the original building and engage in anti-police graffiti, anti-
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...
protests and petty theft. The current owner of the building, a
nouveau riche
''Nouveau riche'' (; ) is a term used, usually in a derogatory way, to describe those whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation, rather than by familial inheritance. The equivalent English term is the "new rich" or "new money" ( ...
Turk named Bülent, cannot evict them, because Hotte is disabled, having lost his legs. (It is later revealed that they were crushed by a
water cannon
A water cannon is a device that shoots a high-velocity stream of water. Typically, a water cannon can deliver a large volume of water, often over dozens of meters. They are used in firefighting, large vehicle washing, riot control, and mining ...
during a
riot
A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people.
Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...
.) While Tim is out, the police raid the building in a sweep for clues to the bombing and confiscate their cache of old films, including the incriminating bomb-making film. They cart the films off to the fortresslike police headquarters, a former
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n military
barracks
Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
. One by one, Tim and Hotte visit the former members of their group to warn them of the bust. They are distressed by the news, having gone on with their lives: Nele (
Nadja Uhl
Nadja Uhl (; born 23 May 1972, in Stralsund) is a German actress.
Uhl grew up near Stralsund, in the town of Franzburg. She lived with her mother in a three-generation house, shared with aunts and her grandparents, who had moved in shortly ...
) is a single mother of two young children; "Terror" (Matthias Matschke) is an
attorney; Maik (Sebastian Blomberg) runs an advertising agency that exploits
radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
*Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
imagery; and Flo (Doris Schretzmayer), Tim's former lover, has evidently gone
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
, although her circumstances are never fully explained, and is about to get married. They balk when Tim and Hotte propose breaking into the police headquarters and destroying the evidence, but Terror's counter-suggestion that they should turn themselves in is met with even stronger disagreement, and finally the former radicals devise the plan of infiltrating the headquarters by pretending to be a
television news
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...
crew.
A rift within the police department makes their plan possible: Manowsky (
Klaus Löwitsch
Klaus Löwitsch (8 April 1936 – 3 December 2002) was a German actor, best known in Germany for his starring role in the television detective series ''Peter Strohm''.
He appeared in several films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, beginn ...
), an old-school Berlin cop, wants to use aggressive tactics and avoid press coverage, while Henkel (Devid Striesow), a
technocrat from
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
, prefers more modern, less intrusive methods and is eager to earn good
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...
for the department. Henkel gives the "TV crew" a tour of the police headquarters, including the
evidence room where the films are stashed. Manowsky interrupts the tour, and the former radicals barely manage to slip away.
To destroy the films, the radicals decide to smuggle a second homemade bomb into the evidence room as a
Trojan horse
The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
: all the evidence is stored alphabetically according to the street where it was found, so they need only plant the bomb in a suspicious-looking crate in their old building and entice the police into picking it up. What the other radicals do not know is that Hotte intends to smuggle himself into the evidence room inside the crate along with the bomb, to make sure it's placed correctly. Hotte, without his wheelchair (he uses a
dolly
Dolly may refer to:
Tools
*Dolly (tool), a portable anvil
* A posser, also known as a dolly, used for laundering
* A variety of wheeled tools, including:
**Dolly (trailer), for towing behind a vehicle
**Boat dolly or launching dolly, a device fo ...
), is trapped in the evidence room when the emergency exit door is jammed. Frantically, he uses the phone in the room to call his compatriots, but they are all away from their phones. In desperation he calls Bülent, who at that moment is trying to talk Tim into abandoning their apartment and accepting a payoff for their few remaining goods. Tim rushes to Hotte's aid. The others eventually get Hotte's message and come to rescue him as well, but meanwhile, Manowsky intercepts Hotte and Tim in the evidence room. After a taunting lecture on their inability to let go of past ideals, Manowsky prepares to arrest the two, but the others arrive just in time to distract him. Tim seizes Manowsky's
handcuffs
Handcuffs are Physical restraint, restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists in proximity to each other. They comprise two parts, linked together by a Link chain, chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each cuff has a rotating arm whi ...
and shackles him to the evidence cage. He threatens to leave the bomb in Manowsky's lap, but the others persuade him not to commit outright murder. Tim tosses Manowsky the handcuff keys, and the radicals flee as an alarm sounds.
Pursued by police through the headquarters, the former radicals stumble upon a water cannon and use it to drive back the police and escape. As Manowsky and Henkel observe their flight, Henkel confidently predicts that the evidence will lead to their capture. However, Manowskymoved by the radicals' compassion, by his annoyance with Henkel and by reflection on his own long-held idealshas left the bomb in the evidence room, and it destroys the evidence.
The group of friends walk through the streets of Berlin and end up on the floor of an
S-Bahn
The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...
car. Tim then pulls the incriminating film out of his bag, holds a lighter to it, and asks aloud: "What do you do if there's a fire?", and the friends answer, "Let it burn!"
The film contains mild nudity, mild drug use, and mature language.
Cast
*
Til Schweiger
Tilman Valentin Schweiger (; born 19 December 1963) is a German actor, voice actor and filmmaker. He runs his own production company, Barefoot Films, in Berlin.
Early life
Schweiger was born in Freiburg, West Germany, to two teachers. He grew ...
as Tim
*
Sebastian Blomberg
Sebastian Blomberg (born 24 May 1972) is a German actor. He has appeared in more than forty films since 1997.
In 2008 he played Rudi Dutschke in The Baader Meinhof Complex (''German: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)''. Dutschke was the most prominent ...
as Maik
*
Martin Feifel as Hotte
*
Nadja Uhl
Nadja Uhl (; born 23 May 1972, in Stralsund) is a German actress.
Uhl grew up near Stralsund, in the town of Franzburg. She lived with her mother in a three-generation house, shared with aunts and her grandparents, who had moved in shortly ...
as Nele
*
Doris Schretzmayer as Flo
*
Matthias Matschke Matthias is a name derived from the Greek Ματθαίος, in origin similar to Matthew.
People
Notable people named Matthias include the following:
In religion:
* Saint Matthias, chosen as an apostle in Acts 1:21–26 to replace Judas Iscariot ...
as Terror
*
Klaus Löwitsch
Klaus Löwitsch (8 April 1936 – 3 December 2002) was a German actor, best known in Germany for his starring role in the television detective series ''Peter Strohm''.
He appeared in several films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, beginn ...
as Manowski
*
Devid Striesow
Devid Striesow (born 1 October 1973 in Bergen auf Rügen, East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 Oct ...
as Henkel
*
Barbara Philipp as Pritt
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 50% based on reviews from 24 critics.
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
it has a score of 47% based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Kevin Thomas of the
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
called it "Thoughtful, even stinging at times, and lots of fun."
Megan Lehmann of the
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
wrote: "It's all entertaining enough, but don't look for any hefty anti-establishment message in what is essentially a whip-crack of a buddy movie that ends with a whimper."
Elvis Mitchell of
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
wrote: "This is a picture that Maik, the firebrand turned savvy ad man, would be envious of: it hijacks the heat of revolution and turns it into a sales tool."
References
External links
*
*
{{Anarchism
2001 films
Films about anarchism
Films set in Berlin
German drama films
2000s German-language films
Punk films
Columbia Pictures films
Squatting in film
Squatting in Germany
2000s German films