Freakstars 3000

Easily the strangest and most exuberant film of the festival. A very strange and daring parody of the TV show known in Holland as Idols (and in Germany as Popstars). The film is compiled from series of broadcasts made for the Berlin local television station Viva/Viva. The idea and the screenplay are from the notorious riot artist Christoph Schlingensief. The candidates for the Freakshow are mentally or physically handicapped. Unlike the `normal’ commercial example, the candidates have a major say in the show and the competition element is reduced to the necessary satirical variation. Achim von Paczensky, who plays the director of the film in the film, was at first credited as the director of the whole film, but it is quite clear that this is a genuine Schlingensief film. All the press material is written in the (hilarious) spirit of Schlingensief. Wonderful reading but most likely unreliable. Did Viva/Viva indeed gain historic ratings with the episodes of the Freakshow? Why should it not, really? There are but few films (or television programmes) that give you the feeling you’re seeing something incredible, too crazy to be true. And yes, there was apparently a taboo. Can you (ab)use the mentally handicapped that way? Look and behold that Schlingensief already had answers to all the questions. (GjZ)