LORD OF THE TOYS
>VOD, DVD, Blu-ray<
documentary, 95 minutes
Germany 2018
with
MAX HERZBERG and others
written and edited by PABLO BEN YAKOV & ANDRÉ KRUMMEL creative assistance ROLAND SCHELIGA cinematography ANDRÉ KRUMMEL sound PABLO BEN YAKOV, MARC EBERHARDT score KAT KAUFMANN additional music I AM MONO & AUDITIVIUM voice MAXIMILIANE HÄCKE artwork and colour grading ROLAND SCHELIGA sound design and mixing TOBIAS ADAM & SIMON PETER foley artist LENA BECK directed and produced by PABLO BEN YAKOV
The 20 year old Max „Adlersson“ Herzberg, from Dresden, decided not to spend his life working. Instead he reviews knives and other products, unboxes limited fan editions of mainly gangsta rap albums, gives talks about himself, drinks, swears and bawls in town, humiliates others, cracks controversial jokes and crosses every boundary he sees. Max is a YouTube creator and makes a decent living off of it.
Most of Max’s friends have their own channels on YouTube and Instagram, some are even quite successful. Max and his gang are dubious role models, but without a doubt, they are celebrities of their generation with more than 300,000 active fans.
Is Max a violence-glorifying influencer with far-right tendencies or a usual adolescent, just trying to find himself, having been born into a time where the lines between private life and public self-display are blurred? He might be both, possibly without being overly aware of it.
LORD OF THE TOYS follows him and his gang over the course of one summer and leaves a dystopian impression of the first generation of young adults, who never knew the world without the internet, YouTube and Instagram. The film portrays them and studies the milieu in which their life style is thriving: the West in general and East Germany in particular.
premiered at 61st DOK Leipzig on 31st of October 2018
released in theatres in Germany on May 23rd 2019
released on DVD&Blu-ray on 6th of December 2019
Golden Dove at the German Competition Long Documentary
"The prize for the best German documentary film is awarded to Lord of the Toysby director Pablo Ben Yakov and cameraman André Krummel, because it is smart, differentiating, extremely courageous and full of a painful political topicality. And it satisfies the requirement a good documentary film must have: It helps people getting to understand what’s going on elsewhere. (...)"
– Jury, DOK Leipzig
festivals
HOT DOCS 2019, WATCH DOCS 2019
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