This Is Not Berlin


This Is Not Berlin, is a 2019 Mexican coming of age drama film directed by Hari Sama. The film was presented on 25 January 2019 at the Sundance Festival, and it premiered on 21 June 2019 in Spain. Sama portrays the film as autobiographical, as it is inspired by his life in the 80s in Mexico.

Plot

Carlos, a seventeen-year-old boy in Mexico City, doesn't fit in anywhere: neither in his family nor with his friends from school. He and his best friend Gera sell his father's nude magazines to his classmates at school. Even though he rejects his family's desire for him to become an engineer, Carlos is fond of fixing electronics. In exchange for fixing a friend's electric keyboard, he is given a ride to the mythical nightclub called the Aztek, where the friend's band does frequent gigs. He discovers the underground through the club.
At soccer practice the next day, Gera's teammates tell him that club is full of gays and male prostitutes, but they decide they want to go back anyways. His next time there, Carlos improvises electronic lighting decorations which improve the band's performance and wins crowd admiration. He meets Nico, who takes him to a secret room filled with surreal artists who practice bisexual freedom, film pornography and consume all types of drugs. He is given an inhalable substance and witnesses a modern art critic leaving the building, claiming they lack originality and copy too much from European artists, hence the title "This is not Berlin."
Gera steals his father's car so they can return to the club but they are denied entry. The car is broken into and the stereo is stolen, leading to Gera and his sister Rita to be punished. They still find ways around it and Carlos continues his descent into the club. His mother is also undergoing a mental health crisis with severe mood swings - between being hysterically angry and sleeping all day. Sometimes he has to cook for his younger brother.
Carlos begins participating more actively in the surreal activities, which include public nudity and bizarre gory performances. He shaves part of his head and begins to skip school. Gera and his former friend group turns against him and vandalizes his desk. Nico starts making sexual advances towards Carlos but he is not ready. Carlos' uncle who taught him about electronics suddenly dies. This makes him dive deeper into the club and start participating in its public acts.
At a send-off for the soccer team, the group stages a demonstration with projected footage of the supposed team members having sex with each other. Back at the club, both Gera and Carlos get into one night stands, Carlos with an unknown woman and Gera with a male friend of Carlos'. Nico walks in on Carlos. Gera is found unconscious lying near a toilet. Carlos rescues him and takes him out to his family.
The police raid and condemn the club and arrest everyone in it, including all of the main characters. In the hospital, Gera and Carlos reconcile, where Gera reveals his homosexuality.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of. The site's critical consensus reads, "This Is Not Berlin uses one young man's sexual and cultural awakening as the fuel for a personal story with widely resonant themes."