Synopsis
Rent Eats the Soul" documents during two years neighborly organizing and protest on the southern Kottbusser Tor. The film portrays movingly the protagonists of the protest. It links the housing problem to the history of migration and emphasizes a connection between racism and urban displacement.
During the night of May 26 in 2012, some residents of social housing at Kottbusser Tor, a majority ethnic Turkish neighbors, built a protest house. They called it "Gecekondu", translated from Turkish means "built overnight".
With this occupation of a public square in the center of Kreuzberg, the tenants initiative Kotti & Co began a until now visible daily resistance, and brought the issue of social housing and the massive displacement of long-term residents of the city on the political agenda.
People with very different biographies and politically different views began to talk to each other and to share their stories. The separations and prejudices gave way to a positive uncertainty, neighbours became friends.
The "Cottbus Choir" features in the film, a radically postideological choir, arranged and musically composed by Nicholas Bussmann.
The choir sees itself in the tradition of leftist amateur choirs, but the normally hierarchical structure of a choir is broken and a musical track reflects the subject of the film: the relationship between collective and individual.