Cinema Under the Stars in Berlin

I love going to the movies. And if the location is interesting, I love it even more. Which is why I loved last night a lot.

Despite a heat-stroke peppered day, I decided to finish out my trip to Berlin with a visit to the open-air cinema Freiluftkino Kreuzberg to see The Lives of Others under the stars.

Could there be a better movie-going experience than sitting outside on a deck chair on a warm spring night drinking beer and eating popcorn watching a movie about 1984 East Berlin just a few blocks from where the Berlin Wall once stood? (The answer is no).

The setup is amazing: the screen, which is enormous, sits in the middle of a courtyard lined with trees and is fronted by a large grassy space. There’s a pile of deck chairs by the entrance; you pick one up on your way in. There’s a concession that serving sodas, beer, popcorn and other snacks. The projector sits in the window on the 4th floor of a window of a neighbouring building. The picture quality is excellent.

Oh, and the movie itself was pretty good too.

And long. By the time it let out it was after midnight, and by the time I caught the U-Bahn and tram back to my hotel it was after 1:00 p.m. But any tiredness I feel on my long journey back to Canada today as a result (note to self) will be more than worth it. If you’re in Berlin in the summer I can’t think of a better way to spent an evening.