Nonkonform

Right at the start, Dietrich Kuhlbrodt tells us he’s been taking risks his whole life. He’s tried out a lot and done many things – he was a lawyer, writer, critic, commissioner for porn movie regulation, punk musician, actor, and family man. How does all of that fit into one life? Born in 1932 in Hamburg, he experienced World War II as a child and was later responsible for prosecuting crimes committed during the Nazi era as a public prosecutor in Hamburg’s District Court. A school friend gave him his first jobs as a film critic, then he was a co-founder and active member of the Hamburg Film Working Group for a long time. In the 1980s, he switched to being in front of the camera, where he appeared in Christoph Schlingensief’s scandalous films. Interviews, archival materials, and snapshots of Kuhlbrodt’s everyday life, accompanied by a jazzy soundtrack by Helge Schneider, create a portrait of a multifaceted personality who was one thing above all else: non-conformist.