2024 – 10 Min.

Evaluate, categorize, classify, lock up – but who is actually to blame in a juvenile detention facility?

Punishment has many faces, just like criminals. But in the thicket of everyday black-and-white thinking, who is actually the guilty party?
Lebensschulden is an experimental film that processes true stories from a juvenile detention center in a surreal dream world and thus questions the limits of human judgment. Images are strung together like a slap in the face, each revealing a harsh and closed reality that usually remains hidden behind concrete walls. A guard faces a group of dark and light-skinned young men, constantly having to decide what is supposedly the right thing to do. Struggle and pain are as close together here as hope and hopelessness.
The viewer has to challenge himself and constantly question what if and how would I?

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Festivals/Awards/Labs/Funding (Selection):

Funded by MOIN! Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein – Kurz und Innovativ 2023