DRIFTER

Berlin, 2007, in the environs of Zoo Station, Aileen (16), Angel (23) and Daniel (25) go about their daily lives. Homeless, prostitutes and drug addicts these young people exist in the cracks of society. They drift through the city streets, anonymous to passers by, perpetually searching for somewhere to sleep, something to eat, another trick, their next fix. The camera bears witness to their transient existence: shooting up in public toilets, cooking dinner at the home of a regular punter, wandering through empty alleyways, spending the night at a doss house. Director Sebastian Heidinger has chosen to observe rather than explain, so there is no voice-over, no interviews, no glib rationalisation of the protagonists' situation; no back-story, no future. In his simple, down-to-earth documentation of the here and now, Heidinger pulls apart the myths and undermines the clichés that surround the Children of Bahnhof Zoo.