Sloth, Maybe?

People who are clean and sober wonder what the factors are that would draw a kid in their early teens into the drug scene.   Poverty is the usual answer, and it’s true, but do we really know what poverty is?   It isn’t just a lack of money, or the negligence of a child’s parents.   It often takes root in the simple fact that a child may live in a building complex where there is no playground. Zoo Station, A Memoir  (1978) is based on a series of articles in Stern magazine where the main interviewee is one teenager going by the name Christiane F.   She methodically goes through her youth from the age of six to fourteen where abuse and deprivation molded her into a junkie and a prostitute. Her family came from a rural area in Germany.   Christiane, her sister, and her mother were led to West Berlin by her father who boasted of a new opportunity of founding a telephone dating service.   Christiane’s father rented a large apartment with promises of making...

After reviewing the 2021 Amazon miniseries Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo , I decided to travel back in time about 40 years to 1981, when the first film incarnation of the same title was made.   From the wayback machine, I present Christiane F. - Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo .   I will refer to the 1981 film as Christiane F. so as to avoid confusion.   Most importantly I will do my best to focus on the 1981 film without drawing comparisons with the 2021 iteration. How I managed to purchase a copy of 1981’s Christiane F. is an adventure in and of itself.   My search for the film on Amazon came up dry, leading me to the 2021 miniseries.   After finishing the series, I widened my net beyond Amazon in search of the movie.   I found a BluRay copy for online purchase from Walmart. You heard me.   Walmart . Let that sink in. The title read in what turned out to be Catalan Spanish:   Yo, Cristina F.   I checked in what regions it was playable.   It li...

Amazon Studios’ miniseries Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo (We, the Children from Bahnhof Zoo) splits Christiane F's perspective into six characters:   Christiane, Stella, Babsi, Axel, Benno, and Michi.   Some of the ensemble meet fatal ends.   Some piece their lives back together and carry on as normal people would.   Some find true love when on the verge of death. And then there’s Stella. Of the six Zoo children, Stella has suffered the most.   At the beginning of the story, Stella and her very young siblings greet her mother who returns from rehabilitation for her alcoholism.   Stella works in the pub run by her family, where the escape of alcohol dangles before them as low hanging fruit.   One pivotal day, while closing up the pub, Stella is raped by a regular barfly as her mother lies in a drunken stupor.   When Stella demands that her rapist be taken by the police and sent to jail, her attacker shrugs it off as “fooling around.” One night, while...

  NOTA BENE:   This review contains spoilers. Tribalism and alienation have been part of the youthful experience long before modern times. In the late 1970s, a teenage girl going by the name Christiane F. was interviewed by two journalists from Stern magazine about her experiences as a heroin addict and prostitute in the seedy Berlin Zoologischer Garten station - commonly known as Bahnhof Zoo.   The series of articles soon became the bestselling book Christiane F. - Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo (We, the Children from Bahnhof Zoo).   It was adapted into a film in 1981, which received great critical acclaim. Christiane’s misadventures were once again adapted into the 2021 miniseries Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo which was produced in part and released by Amazon Studios.   The series expands from Christiane being the sole protagonist to an ensemble cast of six and their individual experiences with life, love, drugs, joy, and sorrow. Christiane begins her adventure ne...