Nichtstadt

What is valuable in a city - and who owns it ? Like a large part of German cities by now, the up-and-coming city of Jena is in a process of profound change. The film accompanies five different associations and socio-cultural initiatives and documented their struggle to preserve their threatened spaces.

Each of the portraits shows a part of the urban microcosm and its change under the pressure of economic interests. From concerts at Cafe Wagner, soccer games at the Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld, intoxicating parties in the basement of the Inselhaus or birth preparation courses in the Ruhesaal of the Geburtshaus - between screaming babies and roaring soccer fans, dancing hippies or gentle mavericks - the city is alive and it is struggling to breathe!