Sleeping Rough (2002) Martin Gruber and Jochen Becker

Sleeping rough was shot during the summer of 2001 among a group of homeless men and women in downtown Hamburg after six months of ethnographic fieldwork. While the homeless are often represented as outcasts of society, this film shows critical and self-reflexive people who master their lives “in public“ in an undefeated spirit. The cohesion of the group provides the matrix through which individuals in varying stages of liminality can find solace and support. The camera offers a privileged, often candid view of daily routines and work as well as leisure time which is spent socializing on a public square equipped with a container for luggage. Intimately and with sometimes disenchanted frankness the protagonists reflect on the circumstances of their situation between romance and tragedy, past disappointments and future ambitions.