Early-’80s East Germany might not seem a natural hotbed of skateboard culture, but, as one adherent points out in Marten Persiel’s scrappy documentary, the place was after all “a world of concrete.” A trove of home videos, vintage commercial and propaganda footage and black-and-white animation dress up this energetic if somewhat unfocused look at the birth of skateboarding in the German Democratic Republic.
Now-middle-aged friends gather in the weedy remnants of an old East Berlin housing project to swap memories and anecdotes, particularly involving their late friend Denis. A star athlete, he morphed into a skating sensation known as Panik who could have given the “Jackass” boys a real run for their money. He was also an integral part of uniting punks from East and West Germany prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The sheer impish joy of young male daredevils packs more of a punch in this setting than its traditional American trappings. As one former skater describes the prevailing cultural sentiment of the time: “Just for fun? That didn’t exist.”