Old movies can tell you something about bygone times and vanished places. This "Mauer" movie doesn't do that. It doesn't show you anything about the reality in West or East Berlin, it is not about real people.
Arnulf Kabe (Marius Müller-Westernhagen) spent most of his adult life in Eastern jails, because he repeatedly tried to get to the West. As soon as he finally arrives in West Berlin, he hates it. Turns out, he's just a guy with severe psychological problems. He has no idea, what it is that he wants. It's not a "The grass is always greener on the other side" kind of thing, he doesn't even look for greener pastures. It's more like: Fence sitting is the only way to live.
If you know nothing about the real world, invent your own. The author, Peter Schneider, presumably tried to tell a highly poetic and deeply philosophical story. "Mauer" is none of that. It's a completely irrelevant, useless movie, with bland, irritating characters, a story that goes nowhere and a big fake Berlin wall that certainly took a fortune to be built. Peter Schneider and director Reinhard Hauff make it very clear that they don't take sides. They are neither for the West nor for the East, neither for the Wall nor against it. Activists in West Berlin who rally againt the Wall are the butt of their jokes. They practice what they preach: fence-sitting. "Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:16)
Arnulf Kabe loves a different part of the Bible. In his imagination this crazy stylite ("pillar dweller"), dwelling on a wall, sees himself as Moses, as a leader of men. In West Berlin he is doing an amateur radio show, calling for an united communist Germany - and peace on earth. So much is so very wrong with this movie, and there isn't the slightest hint that it is supposed to be a satire. Au contraire, Kabe is doubtlessly supposed to be a strong-willed hero. "Don't know what I want, but I know how to get it!" (Anarchy In The UK, '76) - Nah, this guy knows nothing.
Why did Arnulf Kabe try so hard to get to the West? Why was this movie made? Who cares. ("Bad German Movies"-Review No. 28)
