»Bannmeilen« von Anne Weber

Where the city ends and the suburbs begin is clearly marked in Paris by the Périphérique, which Anne Weber's narrator has hardly ever thought of crossing. For what is there, in the disreputable banlieues, apart from a network of railways, motorways and motorways, between which warehouses, huge supermarkets and building sites and millions of people are wedged? Apart from the notorious hardship, violence and poverty? But when her old friend Thierry suggests that she accompany him on a film about the suburbs of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, which are undergoing a radical transformation ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games, she has to admit that she has been blind to the immediate surroundings for decades. There is, for example, the Muslim cemetery of Bobigny, surrounded by piles of rubble, where an Algerian Olympic champion of the 1920s is buried; the two circular social housing blocks of Noisy-le-Grand, which face each other like gigantic Camemberts; and a thousand other places that tell of colonialism and suffering, of hope and progress. Over time, Thierry himself also reveals himself to be part of this contradictory world, previously hidden from view.
With quiet humour and great powers of observation, Anne Weber opens herself up to the unfamiliar and different in our midst in Bannmeilen, creating not only the image of a complex friendship, but also the story of a multi-layered society in the as yet unseen suburb of lovers.

**with
Anne Weber

moderated by
Moritz Baßler**