Bitte nach Mitte! Die Schauspielschule Ernst Busch zieht um

Summary

The documentary sketches the essence and impact, history and present of the Berlin drama school "Ernst Busch". It takes the move of the school in 2018 as an opportunity to capture the contradictions between artistic and economic interests in post-reunification Berlin and in the present. After the end of the GDR, the school was threatened with extinction: the building was dilapidated, Berlin was broke, the search for a new location threatened to fail. The students themselves finally fought their way to the new location under the motto "Bitte nach Mitte!" ("Let’s move to the center").

In the course of the film, the relocation moves further and further into the background. The director, herself a graduate of "Ernst Busch", shows what still makes the university one of the most respected acting schools today. She portrays teachers and students who have always given the school its unmistakable face. It shows an institution with a spirit of resistance at all times of its existence. Actor and director Leander Haußmann describes it as follows: "This school has bravely and uprightly ploughed its way through all times."

Source: 53. Internationale Hofer Filmtage 2019