No Songs of Love

How well do we know the people we spend our lives with? Young filmmaker Tobias Hansen has been living with his girlfriend Ellen for the past year. At the time of his move, all contact to his brother, a Hamburg rock musician, came to an abrupt end. Tobias suspects that the two most important people in his life have been lying to him.

Catching sight of a poster for the Hansen Band’s tour of Germany one day, Tobias decides to make a documentary about his brother. Reluctantly, Markus agrees. He has no idea what his brother’s real intentions are. Tobias invites Ellen to join him on the documentary shoot in order to find out what really happened a year ago. Ellen’s appearance unleashes unsolved conflicts. Amidst the chaos of their emotions, Tobias, Markus and Ellen try to make sense of their relationship to each other.

"Keine Lieder über Liebe" is an improvised semi-documentary in which the actors developed their character’s biographies in collaboration with the film’s director. Similarly, the film’s music and the band to which Markus belongs were also created in collaboration with real musicians, and the band genuinely went on tour in Germany. The film was shot chronologically, which allowed the film’s protagonists to interact in a succession of improvised scenes at concerts or on the tour bus, thus creating a constant interplay between reality and fiction.

Source: 55. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)