Christiane F.

Christiane F. is a 1981 German biographical drama film directed by Uli Edel that portrays the descent of Christiane Felscherinow, a bored and depressed 13-year-old growing up in mid-1970s West Berlin, to a 14-year-old heroin addict. Based on the 1978 non-fiction book Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (We Children from Zoo Station), transcribed and edited from tape recordings by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck, the film immediately acquired cult status and features David Bowie as both composer and as himself. In 2013, Felscherinow published her autobiography Christiane F. – My Second Life. Plot Thirteen-year-old Christiane Felscherinow lives with her mother, younger sister, and her pet cat in their small apartment in an unkempt multi-storey, concrete social-housing building in a dull neighbourhood on the outskirts of West Berlin. She is tired of living there and is a huge fan of David Bowie. She hears of Sound, a new trending nightclub in the city's centre. Although she is not old enough to get in, she dresses up in high heels and make-up, and asks a popular school friend, Kessi, who goes there regularly, to take her. Kessi also provides her with pills. At the club, she meets a slightly older boy named Detlev, who is part of a clique where everybody uses various types of drugs. The next morning, Christiane and Kessi are waiting for the subway when Kessi's mother finds them and angrily berates Kessi, grabbing her by the arm and telling Christiane to stay away from her daughter. Christiane starts taking LSD, in addition to abusing pills, and befriends a girl her age named Babsi. After a David Bowie concert, Christiane tries heroin for the first time. As she falls in love with Detlev, Christiane begins using heroin on a regular basis in order to be close to him, gradually becoming more and more dependent on the drug until she is a full-blown addict. After her 14th birthday, Christiane stops going home and spends more and more time at her cohorts' unkempt apartment; she is also drawn to Bahnhof Zoo, a large train and subway station notorious for the drug trafficking and prostitution that takes place in its underpasses and back alleys.