Concept

A young audience member recently phrased it like this: „In the movie it is as if a stencil is suddenly taken away. This stencil is the behavior of adults and their view of the world. Children and young people suddenly emerge from underneath: Everyday life now proceeds according to their structures. Like a pattern that was actually there all the time and that you could just not see under the stencil.“

The world of CaRabA is located in the peculiar sphere between fantasy and reality. Though the plot always moves within everyday life, its portrayal leaves our familiar here and now time and again: The dialogues are kept casual, but often sound poetic or even philosophical. Items that look like they belong to a bygone past are used in futuristic buildings. Ancient vehicles drive through modern city centers with the utmost naturalness and transport business travelers with the same diligence as children, well-read retirees or the homeless. Warm sunlight falls through scratched windows and then, turning cooler, immerses itself in sleek, oddly cubist concrete walls. After twilight, neon blue pulsates through nightclubs and chemistry labs before it meets the warm candle light and bright lightbulbs of homes, just a few feet away. Pigeons flutter, bicycles squeak, voices echo through empty museums. Antique pendulum clocks swing their way through dreamy electronic music passages ... Who wakes whom? What is old, what is new, what is appropriate?

One could assume that a film that lets children and adolescents take responsibility for their lives automatically has to move away from reality. At the same time freedom and responsibility rate among the most difficult and essential tasks! Anyone expecting a rosy world full of smiling people in CaRabA will be disappointed. The young protagonists deal with their living conditions in a quite serious and focused manner. All of them are characterized by a certain incorruptibility in their actions and judgments, which means that they do not make it easy for themselves. Nevertheless, they always remain playful, find creative ways, seek contact with others.

The fact that the protagonists do not have to go to school is at first not clear in CaRabA. Why then is it still considered essential to the elimination of the „adult stencil“? The school system (in its form as "duty" for which non-compliance equals a criminal act) is only one of many social and value systems based on the assumption that a high degree of individual freedom is harmful to a civilized coexistence. Nevertheless, it holds a special significance, precisely because it is the first of these systems, at least in a closed and institutionalized form, which a young person has to face. So that he can - ultimately - succumb or resist, whereby of course there are countless middle ways between the two extremes. In my view, however, no system should be more valuable to us than a living person, especially a young one with hopes and freedom to develop into himself. After all, a person knows best what he dreams of and where he wants to go and what he has to learn to achieve it. And this also includes when, how and with whom he can learn all of this.

CaRabA shows us to some extent: It is anything but easy to choose a self-determined life. But - and the movie portrays this - it will always be worthwhile! Because it leads to the emergence of youthful, curious, unbiased and endearing - in short: living - patterns that have the potential to change our society in the best sense of the word.

Cast

Yunus Gürkan
Carl Hiller
Emma Brüggler
Paul Csipai
Lena Stoll
Nurija Böll
Conrad F. Geier
Murat Seven
Funda Rosenland
Sefâ Konuk Agnew
Can Sener
Florentine Schara
Wolf Gerlach
Anjorka Stechel
Ilse Bendin
Lisa Marie Janke
Ruben Brinkmann
Oliver Sauer
Norbert Hülm
Yu Fang
Viktor Bashmakov
Max Schimmelpfennig
Johannes Gäde
Rana Tutzlali
Linda Laudert
Kalle Perlmutter
Lutz Winde
Robert Meller
J. David Hinze
Martina Weihrich
Arne Krause
Thomas Höhne
Bertrand Stern
Judith Mauthe
Marion Alessandra Becker
Marc Adams
Lutz Scheffer
Anne Scholz
Dietrich Rudeloff
Marianne Thies
Markus Braun
Moritz Berg
Luna Schaller
Arda Atmaca
Noel Friege
Lenz Lengers
Fabian Prokein
Jürgen Lehmann
Mazen Alnounou
Carolin Ott
Michael Stein
Stefan Düe
Valentin Emil Lubberger
Sascha Werginz
Meike Frevel
Sylvia Schwarz
Werner Waas

Crew

Artistic and economic direction: Joshua Conens
Initiated by: Bertrand Stern

Screenplay: Andreas Laudert

Director: Katharina Mihm
1st Assistant Director: Sandrina Koppitz
2nd Assistant Director: Clara Haas

DoP: Arsenij Gusev
1st Assistant Camera: Marc Romaine
2nd Assistant Camera: Sebastian Schwagereit
DIT: Sergej Egorkin

Light: Serafim Gusev
Best Boy: Gregor Cunningham
Light Assistance: Jakob Franskevich-Leie, Christian Öhl, Francisco Mece

Editing: Caro Sultan Bauermeister/ bfs Sebastian Lempe

Music: Elias Gottstein

Set Sound: Maximilian Pongratz, Christoph Fleischer

Sound-Design: Anders Wasserfall

Production Designer: Marcelo Alves
Art Direction: Marie Ross
Interior Props: Alice Faucher
Exterior Props: Jan Rejzek
Graphic Scenography: Kati Linke, Katja Wehner
Assistant Production Designer: Theresa Höfer

Costume Designer: Rosa Barz
Wardrobe: Flora Tesch, Annemarie Sabel
Costume Internship: Johanna Bohners

Make-up Artist: Elena Ziegler
Additional Make-up Artist: Lea Komminoth, Luise Böhme

1st Unit Manager: Alex Weiz
Set Unit Manager: Liska Witt
Assistant Set Unit Manager: Ben Sheppard, Lars Nieske
Set-Runner: Arthur Gay, Ronja Hüttinger, Lena Otte, Milena Conens, Eva Lotta Ravn, Uli Waldmann, Bertrand Stern, Ines Rahn, Kristina Zunic, David Masuch

Production Management: Joshua Conens
Production Assistance: Anh Trieu, Anton Wolf, Malte Cigola, Sarah Stern
Production Team: Lena Stoll, Dominik Fackler, Sophie Holzberger, Bianca Geburek, Clara Freund

Childcare: Ronja Hüttinger, Katharina Menne

Catering: Wiebke Hampel, Clara Freund
Catering Assistance: Martin Rees, Ingrid Hampel, Angela Tiamiyou Fatayi, Birgit Krämer, Steffi Doll

Postproduction Coordination: Andreas Hellmanzik

VFX: Stefan Otterpohl, Janine Pusch
Title Design: Janine Pusch
Color Correction: Andreas Hellmanzik

Additional Sound: Étienne Röder
Post-Dubbing: David Rusitschka, Gerd Nesgen

Trombone: Anke Lucks
Saxophone: Birgitta Flick
Marimba: Brigitte Haas
Trumpet: Yannick Mäntele
Flute: Ruth Schepers
Guitar: Elias Gottstein

English Translation: Irene Hummel, Jens Dreiheller, Rabea Dahlhausen

Graphic: Malwina Senkiw, Carola Sultan Bauermeister, Dominik Krolikowski, Lars Bischoff, Mohammed Reza Nekoofar