DIVINE LOCATION
In the middle of one of the largest industrial areas in Europe, the Ruhr region, a beautiful, artificial lake with a luxurious residential area has been developed – marina and piazza included. A light and often absurdly comic film about the transition from an industrial to a leisure society.
Dortmund is a city in the Ruhr region, one of Europe’s largest industrial centres. Until April 2001, this was one of the most important locations for heavy industry in the world. On the enormous site of the former Phönix-Ost steelworks, which has lain dormant since the plant was closed in 2001, and in the middle of a working-class district, a luxury housing development has now been built up around a newly created, artificial lake: Lake Phoenix. The development includes a marina and piazza. The descriptions provided for this innovative venture make no mention of hard work, steelworks, environmental pollution or noise. The keywords now are leisure time and relaxation, service society and Mediterranean flair. Think Mies van der Rohe instead of workers’ housing. But how to proceed when the surrounding working-class neighbourhood has become a ghetto, decimated by unemployment because of the closure of the steelworks? It took five years for the steelworks to make way for the lake. Filmmakers Ulrike Franke and Michael Loeken followed planners and residents, visionaries and sceptics with their cameras for the entire duration of the project. We meet Dortmund locals, attend client meetings and accompany new residents who tell us about their plans and dreams. We watch as they all become winners or losers in the game called social progress. A light and often absurdly comic film about the transition from an industrial to a leisure society.