This musical is very Berlin! It was released in 1988 and does a great job showing the different pros and cons of living in the free side of the city, as well as the judgement of certain areas as Sunnie attempts to get to Kreuzberg. Berliner dialects are used appropriately throughout this film too, so it’s great exposure!
They play with gender roles and generational issues very well in this film and it can be the backbone of great deep conversations. Sunnie experiences a lot of stereotypical gender issues, being aggressively hit on by many different types of men, as well as ostracism due to the fact she’s not a Berliner and is attempting to go to Kreuzberg. There are even plays on the rules of the U-Bahn and the ways various classes of people behave themselves on the way. We can even see the panic when a child refuses to exit the U-Bahn with the family.
Deep conversations happen focusing on the main character’s pregnancy – raising a child in this world and the thoughts of love, marriage, and abortion are all brought up. Beyond that issues of racism and LGBTQ+ are discussed without solutions/resolutions. There is a deep political discussion after the song Wilmersdorfer Witwen (which itself would be a great discussion!) using historical fact in opinions of current beliefs (current of Cold War times). These pieces are great for deep class discussions!
Personally, I love the songs about how the U-Bahn works – it’s relevant even today! There’s even a line about the U-Bahn going above ground and the Berliner sarcasm as response. Modern cultural connection can be found with Sido – he covered one of the songs (Marias Lied, first verse) in his song Hey du!, 2009.
A tour group shows up with very stereotypical view, trying to make everything their people see rose colored and happy. Of course this piece is quite exaggerated, but it is humorous nonetheless.
Sunnie is played by Inka Victoria Groetschel. She continued in filmed works almost entirely in TV. The man Sunnie is searching for, rock star Johnnie, is played by Johannes Krisch. Krisch had previously only been in an episode of Tatort, but his career took off about a decade later. Lately he’s broken into the U.S. market with Where I Belong. He is cast in the upcoming Narziss und Goldmund as well. Claus-Peter Damitz is among the cast as well. His voice may be familiar – he voiced some of Lissi und der wilden Kaiser. He was also part of the main cast in Die wilden Kerle TV series.
There are some scenes of alcohol abuse, at the level that one may see in some Berlin U-Bahn stations even today. There are German swear words of all levels throughout the film. At 20 minutes in, an intoxicated woman pulls out her breast and plays with it. She is quickly stopped by the men she is with, who take care of her as she struggles with drug abuse. The brief nudity would be easy to cover or skip. The scenes with her show the negative sides of drugs. Sunnie herself is drugged, but she notices something is wrong and doesn’t finish her drink. This is (unfortunately) a good lesson to learn regarding accepting drinks from strangers. At about an hour in, a man is looking at a centerfold and a breast is briefly shown. Horst (the “modern” pop song) has some sexual references that may be inappropriate in some more conservative classes – the response from Sunnie is disgust. Almost all of the “inappropriate” moments are shut down as bad for society and bad for the individual- if the educational setting is appropriate to allow such things, this film actually puts them in the right light.