Aus grauer Städte Mauern

Germany's Ruhr Basin is immediately associated with coal and steel (Krupp). In the past, thousands came from far and wide to mine coal and produce steel. In their 'gold seeker villages' they tried to adapt the leisure activities they had known in their native villages in Pomerania and elsewhere to the new situation. The renowned rifle clubs in full regalia were just a continuation of the old huntsmen's clubs. In the post-industrial 1980s people had to adapt again. It had struck filmmaker Thomas Tielsch that the largest concentration of recreation parks was happened to be in the Ruhr Basin. In from grey city walls Tielsch analyses these parks (with beautiful names like Phantasyland and Dreamland) and tries to determine their importance in everyday life in the Ruhr Basin. Without a doubt farmer Ewald with his Prickingshof is the most striking representative. At his museum farm home made sausages can be pulled from a slot machine and pastoral life is reduced to a video showing a stallion and a mare mating. Tielsch compares the recreation parks with television, since both offer the illusion of reality as a conveniently arranged world. Unfortunately, the film does not pursue in greater depth whether the consumers who enjoy these parks fall victim to one big fraud, or whether there is really more to it for them to be frequented on such a massive scale. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)