Die Stadt als Beute

“We will reclaim our country and our people,” a leading figure in the right-wing populist party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) tells his party colleagues on Bundestag election night in 2017. They are celebrating as the AfD, founded four years earlier, surges into the German parliament with 94 seats, instantly making it the third largest party. The Voice of the People follows four MPs—all men—for three years as they seek to extend their power.

For a quarter of a century, Frank Castorf has created a microcosm in the Volksbühne that many considered to be an identity-forming fortress and a renegade island in the increasingly chic and monotonous centre of the capital. The marathon productions for which he was responsible were true orgies of association that demanded everything from the audience. The film accompanies Castorf's final season and is there when the theatre people get together once more to start a last fireworks display in the face of an uncertain future. (weltfilm GmbH)