Die Schulmädchen vom Treffpunkt Zoo

The generally light-hearted German "schulmadchen-report" films always had some occasional darker and more sordid scenes in them, so perhaps it's not too surprising that the series co-creator, writer/director Walter Boos, decided to make this film which is half latter-day "schulmadchen-report", but also half an expose of the wayward teen drug addicts and prostitutes hanging around Berlins "Zoo" train station. This latter element was no doubt inspired by the uber-depressing auto-biographical novel and subsequent "serious" German film "Christiane F.". But like the other famous "Christiane" knock-off, the Italian-German "Hanna D., the Girl from Vondel Park", this movie is less serious--and a lot more fun--than its inspiration.

A young girl (Katja Beinert) has a junkie boyfriend who prostitutes himself to chickenhawks down at the bus station. After he apparently accidentally kills a john, the heroine considers dabbling in prostitution herself to help him out. She hooks up with an older friend who is a stripper and amateur prostitute. Meanwhile, another thread of the story follows a male classmate of the heroine, who is love with her, and another girl who is in love with him. And mixed with the shooting-up and the trick-turning scenes, there is the usual, much more innocent teen hijinks like a virgin picking up a sexy punk girl at a club or a couple of mischievous "schulmadchen" trying to seduce their math/gym teacher by feigning a shower-room injury, and, in turn, being taught a lesson by a female teacher (Ingeborg Steinbach, a veteran of the earlier "report" films).

Although it certainly delves into some sordid areas, this film actually ends up being more fun and light-hearted than even some of Boos straight-up comedies. But it does contain several radical shifts in tone that might give a casual viewer whiplash. It's best to not to even ponder exactly how old Katja Bienert was when she did this role, but regardless she is relegated to some fairly innocuous topless scenes here with the other more typically elderly-looking "teen" actresses doing the more graphic ones. But generally this is not one of Boos more graphic films sexually. And even with it's sordid subject matter, it's pretty hard to take too seriously. It's unlikely to get any kind of legitimate release anytime soon, but it's harmless enough.

FYI: This movie is Not a ripoff of Christiane F." This movie was released at least two years before Christiane F. was. Without some form of time-travel you can't steal from the plot of an unmade movie. There are some very superficial similarities, but that is easily explained because the drugs and prostitution centered around this train station was a well known problem

This movie is a lighthearted teen exploitation movie similar to many other German movies of this era. It's main purpose is simply to entertain it's intended audience. It isn't even the same genre as Christiane F.

Christiane F. is a very good movie but is intended to be disturbing and make people think.If you watch it and feel entertained, you missed the point of the movie.

Released in the canada & the us as train station pickups. Directed by sleaze merchant Walter Boos. Deals with various teenagers who hang around the train station scoring drugs and selling their bodies. It has a gritty realistic feeling half hazardly dealing with drug abuse but not to be taken seriously. It combines PORKY's style locker room humor and prostitution. - Taken directly from Christiane F. but has no redeeming qualities. Simply a fun 70's sexploitation flic with young high school girls.

"Die Schulmädchen vom Treffpunkt Zoo" seems like such an obvious rip-off of "Christiane F." that I was surprised to find it came out two years before that film. The book of "Christiane F." had come out the year before, though, so I can only assume they were inspired by that publishing phenom, an interview with the titular Christiane that was only supposed to take two hours for a magazine article, but stretched on for two months and was turned into a book, a movie, and a miniseries, so indelible was Christiane's story.

The film of "Christiane F." is so grim and harrowing that it makes "Requiem for a Dream" look like "Sesame Street". Weird, then, that sexploitation filmmaker Walter Boos sought to turn this into another soft porn flick, like the infamous "Schoolgirl Report" series he had also worked on. The movie weaves its tale of the young (allegedly only eleven years old when this was filmed!) Katja Bienert character, a girl with links to the sex industry and a junkie hustler boyfriend she seeks to support. You can see where this is going right away, can't you?

The movie also interweaves some stock plots from the "Report" series, ie. A schoolgirl attempting to blackmail a teacher with her sex appeal, and a slapstick sequence in which a shy boy is about to lose his virginity but accidentally drenches himself and his conquest in paint.

As far as they go, "Die Schulmädchen vom Treffpunkt Zoo" is one of the better sexploitation flicks I have seen, not just from Germany or the '70s, but from any place or era. The troublingly young Katja Bienert, who looks in her late teens, creates a character we care about, as does the young man who tries to woo her. The ending is surprisingly emotive. Unfortunately, as is the ironic norm for sexploitation, the movie isn't really erotic. There is little anticipation of sex/nudity when characters just appear nude from scene-to-scene.