dESIGN12+ #3: Prof. Oliver Schwabe - Tokio Hotel - Behind the world

We are looking forward to the screening of the film by Prof. Oliver Schwabe:

Twins Bill and Tom Kaulitz form a band at an early age, become famous worldwide as Tokio Hotel and experience extreme success - until they retire, burnt out, - to find their freedom again. Oliver Schwabe accompanies them during this phase and provides personal insights into how they continue to deal with fame, identity and their dream.

TOKIO HOTEL - BEHIND THE WORLD
A film by Oliver Schwabe
D, 2017, 90 min.

Tokio Hotel are back. For several years now, they have been delighting new and old fans in TV shows, podcasts and on Netflix.

When the film was made in 2016, none of this could have been foreseen: At the age of nine, twins Bill and Tom Kaulitz from Magdeburg decide to become famous. At the age of twelve, they founded a band together with Gustav Schäfer and Georg Listing, which conquered the world from 2005 under the name Tokio Hotel. They are admired, ridiculed, hated and revered. The success is gigantic: platinum in 68 countries, sold-out concerts and the androgynous Bill becomes a style icon.

Then, in their early twenties, they hit the brakes: rich and famous, the twins flee to Los Angeles on a private jet, leaving thousands of enthusiastic fans and a life behind protective walls behind them. They want their freedom back ... and at first they don't know how or whether things will continue.

During this breather, Oliver Schwabe meets the band. He accompanies Bill and Tom through the lonely deserts of California and Gustav and Georg to the banks of the Elbe. He accompanies the band on tour in France, Germany, Russia and Mexico, albeit in smaller venues at the time, and is present in the studio during album production.

In intimate interviews, Bill, Tom, Gustav and Georg talk about the price of success, the twins' inseparability, love, sexuality, home and music. Undeterred, the band, who have already experienced everything, continue to pursue the dream they began in childhood and the Tokio Hotel pop fairytale enters the next round.

"The result is an astonishingly serious film that doesn't stop at a superficial look at the supposedly glittering world of stars. Not just for fans, but for all music lovers."
- Hamburger Abendblatt

"You think Tokio Hotel are stupid? You should still watch this new and very good documentary, which proves in a sensitive, entertaining way and with beautiful images: it's worth listening to Tokio Hotel. Even if you thought "Durch den Monsun" sucked back then: While we've grown up, so have these four people."
- Der Spiegel

"A documentary that does not exploit its prominent subject, but shows interest and open-mindedness."
- Spielfilm.de

"Hinter die Welt" offers a surprising encounter for people who liked Tokio Hotel as much as a fishhook back then."
- Stuttgarter Nachrichten