Rocker

Hamburg rocker boss Gerd is released from prison. While he was inside, his girlfriend found a new man, Uli, a car thief. In the St Pauli red-light district, Uli is beaten to death by two pimps. His 14-year-old brother Mark is a witness to the crime. Mark goes on a drunken rampage, loses his apprenticeship position, and is sent back to his parents in the country. But on the way to the train station, Mark meets Gerd and helps him with a drug deal. Gerd wants to return the favour …
Wall posters of Marlon Brando as The Wild One (1953), the blueprint for every biker movie to follow, point to the origins of Rocker. Munich director Klaus Lemke was lured to Hamburg for the film because it was the natural habitat for the wild things of the urban jungle. Shot in 35mm with non-professional actors who proved their mettle as authorities in leading the harsh life, the film preserves the authentic images and sounds of a form of subculture that has long since disappeared, including its unique rituals and language (“Don’t wisecrack me, cookie!”). Rocker is a down and dirty motorcycle movie – and a genuine manifestation of the big city seen from the perspective of an adolescent.