Tobby

“The West Berlin jazz singer and bongo player Tobby Fichelscher has received a tempting offer. He is to go on a six-month tour abroad and earn good money in the process. But Tobby is hesitant to accept. For it is not ‘his’ music that he is to play there. Caught between the conflicting demands of art and career, he drifts through the city. He visits jazz clubs, a snack bar, the lido on Lake Wannsee, meets fellow artists, an admirer, friends and acquaintances – and finally makes a decision … ‘The characters and settings are authentic’: the film about him feels just as improvised as his protagonist’s music. The associative montage, jump cuts and top shots made *i* a pioneer of cinematic modernism. (..) In Tobby’s sessions with fellow jazz musicians, the chats amongst the Kreuzberg bohemians – particularly during a five-minute drum-’n’-scat solo performance in the war-damaged Gropius-Bau – the city becomes a resonating space for the expression of his attitude to life.” (Berlinale 2024)