The Free Orchestra

Streaming video - 1989

Day in, day out, Barbara sells screws at a store in the East Berlin Market Hall. She is frustrated about having to tell her customers most of the time: “Ham wa nich!” (We don’t have that!) In the evening, she is the loud and wild singer of the legendary East Berlin avantgarde and punk band Das Freie Orchester. Playing music with her friends helps her escape the monotony of her job, convey feelings of unfulfillment with everyday life in East Germany in the 1980s, and dream of a different life. The short ends with a performance of the song “Ham Wa Nich!” at the famous Erich Franz Youth Club at Prenzlauer Berg.The music collective, Das Freie Orchester, was formed in 1984 and was part of an East German sub- and counterculture.