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Plot Summary
This Ain’t California is a celebration of the lust for life, a documentary drama trip into the world of skate boarding in communist East Berlin in the mid 80’s. A coming-of-age tale of three teenagers and their passionate love for a sport on the crumbling tarmac of the streets in the German Democratic Republic, at the height of the Stasi secret polices efforts to crush rebellion. The punk fairy tale is a story of the subversive power of fun in that part of Germany, which had lost touch with its citizens. The film follows the rise of skating, hip-hop and break dancing through the 80’s, ending in the last summer of the GDR in 1989, when the wall fell, and their lives changed forever.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
81%- Reviews Counted: 16
- Fresh: 13
- Rotten: 3
- Average Rating: 7.1/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: "This Ain't California" offers a vivid immersion in the hidden skateboarding culture of the former East Germany.
Fresh: Martin Persiel's splendid "documentary" could well be subtitled "And It Ain't the Truth."
Fresh: A trove of home videos, vintage commercial and propaganda footage and black-and-white animation dress up this energetic if somewhat unfocused look at the birth of skateboarding in the German Democratic Republic.
Rotten: There are some intriguing concepts here, but they are muddied by the needless flights of undeclared fancy, coming close to bad faith.
