ID-Withoutcolors

On February 27, 2012, the administrative court of Koblenz, in Western Germany, dismissed a complaint by a black German man who was asked to show his papers while travelling by train. The judges ruled that skin color was reasonable grounds on which to carry out ID checks, also in absence of any other reasons. While German police and government have been always denying the use of racist criteria for ID- check, Koblenz’s sentence confirmed for the first time the existence and practice of racial profiling in Germany.

“ID–WITHOUTCOLORS” is a documentary film with the goal of pointing out the situation about racial profiling in Germany, especially in Berlin. It is actually the first and the only European documentary film on this topic.

The German capital city has been depicted by international media as the new venue for fashion and artistic life. Many people from all around the world are coming to Berlin in order to enjoy the artistic and cultural atmosphere of the city. “Berlin is “multikulti” has been the sentence used for a long time to describe the attitude of the city. Also according with Berlin’s administration, there is no evidence of racial profiling in Berlin. The truth is more complex. Since 2002 such organizations as ReachOut/Ariba eV and KOP Berlin have been recording and documenting more than 150 cases of racist police brutality in Berlin.