We Were Never Here

"Mutter" is the name of a Berlin band whose members are singer Max Müller, bass player Kerl Fieser, drummer Florian Koerner von Gustorf and guitarist Frank Behnke. In 2002, Behnke left the band to devote more time to his film projects and was succeeded by keyboarder Tom Scheutzlich and guitarist Achim Treu.

The band "Mutter" is something of a phenomenon. Their music is, by turns, loud and brutish and tender and transient – a style that has caused both their audiences as well as a string of producers to take to their heels. And yet, although the band’s highly distinctive sound has been making a mark on the German music scene for the past 18 years, fame has somehow eluded the band itself, for "Mutter" defies all attempts at pigeonholing. They are, in the words of one Rocko Schamoni, "a secret production outfit that works according to an entirely different set of rules and doesn’t give a damn about how things ought to be done."

This film follows the band’s tour through Germany and Switzerland. Interweaving private Super 8mm footage with the band’s history and the unusual biographies of the musicians, the documentary takes us back to Berlin in the 1980s, to a time when it was possible to attend concerts in private apartments for just one mark and boxing fights were still held in the courtyards of tenement blocks.

"Later people will probably say that nobody gave a shit – but that’s the best thing about it. Are you all thick or what?" (Jochen Distelmeyer, Blumfeld)

Source: 55. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)