This is Not Berlin
Hari Sama’s “This is Not Berlin” is a story of youthful rebellion, where the youth is not completely sure about what he is rebelling from. His family life? His school? His friends? Society? That’s part of what he’s trying to figure out, as well as figuring out who he is. The main character, Carlos, is based on Sama, who plays Carlos’s supportive uncle, Esteban. The film follows very familiar patterns for a coming-of-age story, but it is the way Sama puts us firmly in the perspective of Carlos that keeps us interested, as the film moves along.
Carlos (Xabiani Ponce de León) is a bit of an outsider in his own life. He lives with his needy mother (Marina de Tavira from “Roma”), and has a father figure in his uncle Esteban. He enjoys listening to classic rock, which he was introduced to by Estaban, and messing with electronics. One thing he does not like is the ritualistic fighting that seems to go on in his high school, something his best friend, Gera (Jose Antonio Toledano), is more attuned to. Carlos has a creative side that isn’t really getting nourished, but is inspired by Gera’s sister, Rita (Ximena Romo Mercado), who is a singer in a band. One night, after Carlos fixes a synth for a friend of Rita’s, he and Gera are invited to the Aztec, a nightclub that spills over with avant-garde art, as directed by people like Nico (Mauro Sanchez Navarro), who is particularly drawn by Carlos, and sees something in him even he’s not sure of, at the beginning of the film.
One thing that distinguishes a movie like this, which is personal, and is a direct reflection of the filmmaker’s memories, and other “coming of age” films like, say, “Call Me By Your Name” is exactly that personal connection the director has with the material, and especially, the character he has based on him. This feels very much like a memory come to life, rather than just starting a character, or set of characters, in one way, and having them move to another. By the time “This is Not Berlin” has ended, Carlos is more sure of who he is, but he still feels like he has a ways to go before he’s made his way to the person he will be. His friendship with Gera will go through a significant shift, as well, and one of the most interesting things about the film is how it builds what that friendship becomes, and how it becomes it, with as keen an eye as Carlos’s individual journey. In a way, where that dynamic ends up is where Sama’s film gets its most interesting material from. The film’s title is an illusion to the time period- in 1986 Mexico, in an underground scene not unlike what was going on in East Germany, at the time- as well as a point of revolution Carlos finds himself being a part of. That hardly becomes a seminal moment for him, however, compared to when he finds Gera passed out in a bathroom stall. The personal part of Carlos’s story means more to Sama than the larger society he is a part of, and the more the film focuses on that, the stronger it gets.
