berlin the city in which i should have been born in 1982 but i wasn't my father left yugoslavia in 1976 to find his luck in west berlin but he also traveled to places both east and west of the iron curtain and found the love of his life in bratislava czechoslovakia then part.

Of the communist bloc my future mother and father decided to get married and live in west berlin but my mother couldn't travel directly from czechoslovakia to west berlin so they tried to get there via neutral yugoslavia but they never made it following a certain jewelry robbery that.

Took place in west berlin my father who was rather on the other side of the law at the time was unexpectedly captured by interpol at belgrade airport while he was in prison my mother faced extradition to czechoslovakia because of her expired yugoslavia so they quickly got married in belgrade central prison my father was declared not guilty but.

Wasn't allowed to leave yugoslavia for the next three years that's why i didn't grow up in berlin instead i grew up in serbia but my entire childhood i listened to my father's tales about the distant city and especially about one man the man who was always at the heart of those mythical stories that seemed full.

Of fun and glory after 26 years of just listening i took my camera and went to berlin to finally meet that man and this is his story oh.

Oh i'm sure thank you foreign oh.

My god my legendary uncle finally i'm in berlin with a man from my family tales for almost 40 years he's been living on west berlin's most famous boulevard the kudun where when the wall was still there he used to work in the most prestigious and.

Happening nightclubs today my uncle works for abordello as what he calls a street manager in other words his face is the first thing people see when entering the bordel sweet this is the.

Terrapoint first in berlin my foreign hollywood.

uh whatever at the end of world war ii germany was divided into four allied occupation zones american french british and soviet berlin even though located deep within.

The soviet zone was also divided into four occupation sectors dissatisfied with their regime around two and a half million east germans had fled to the west since 1949 mostly via west berlin by august 1961 2 000 people were leaving east germany every day to halt this exodus khrushchev recommended that the free passage to the west be sealed off.

on august 13 1961 east german soldiers laid down more than 30 miles of barbed wire through the heart of berlin soon they began replacing barbed wire with concrete west berlin was effectively an island in the middle of the communist block at that time little dragon vendo was.

Celebrating his first birthday in yugoslavia where he spent a happy childhood with his mother while his father was a guest worker in west germany at the age of 15 dragon was sent to join his father in west berlin where a new and exciting world opened up to him.

Okay hey through the night everybody feels the groove everybody.

Hello um michigan what's your name my friend my name is seth said yes what's your name dragon dragon yes bee and dragon yes yeah yeah you like it i you know i love democracy i'm here.

Celebrating the fall yes celebrating our victory here with democracy well you like it at least everything it's okay i love it center of our battle against tyranny we we won congratulations congratulations what you think about the.

Fall of the world what do you think about the ball of the wall before before is better every everything every people they live in front of yes.

Foreign foreign richland is foreign foreign i'm sure foreign.

The crowd my uncle's best friend for many years he lives one uban stop away and almost every day around noon dooley comes over to hang around in the kitchen these days doula is broke but he wasn't always short of money he's a former expert in financial frauds and shady money transactions.

Became a millionaire more than once but lost everything after having done every possible job from butcher to pimp he became more ambitious he spent seven years in prison and owes the german state five million euros he claims that his most important financial transaction would have earned.

Him 259 million pounds the millions went to a shared bank account but his partner died in prison from a rare liver disease and took the knowledge of the last digits of pasta how many guys like us inside now foreign.

foreign foreign foreign my uncle sometimes loves and sometimes hates this job but he always underlines.

How important the position of street manager is many men linger around bordellos but don't have the courage to go in street manager is basically the friendly face that will make them feel comfortable about their choice service you have to be careful not to let anyone.

In without your help otherwise you lose your fee for each guy in you get five euros what foreign in the mid-50s west germany started to import foreign workers to meet the labor demands of his economic explosion known as das virtshafsvunder the shortage of.

Labor was even greater when the wall was built especially in west berlin by 1973 almost four million guest workers had come to germany mostly from italy greece turkey and yugoslavia while germany was provided with cheap labor the sending countries benefited from the cash sent home boon.

One of the hardest working foreigners in west berlin was a stone mason from yugoslavia named mila vasiliej mila came to west berlin in 1966 and spent 30 years building a city he actually didn't like his life consisted of hard work taking care of his rebellious son and dreaming of returning to his beloved homeland yugoslavia but.

Unfortunately when he returned in 1995 that country no longer existed once a year usually in april mila travels to berlin to claim his pension and prove to the german state that he's still alive and to visit his only son austin.

Away is this is the first time i see grandpamila outside of modern lots now that most of his old berlin friends have died or left grandpa mila hardly ever leaves the flat my uncle claims that the 10 days that his father has to be in berlin are the.

Longest 10 days in the year in this video film i balcony get i kept replacing my uncle at caligulo on sundays while he kept checking that i made no mistakes on the job.

Meanwhile grandpa mila kept raising an old topic of ours which is foreign it m it is.

Foreign foreign my um so enjoy.

Good foreign intelligent yeah watching the oneness of them during the cold war two opposing blocks.

Ruled the world but there was also a third block the non-aligned movement the non-aligned movement was born during the decolonization process of the 1960s when the newly independent countries from africa asia and latin america were seeking their own political identity which would avoid being ruled by the superpowers the only european country at.

The forefront of this movement was yugoslavia led by the charismatic marshall tito the leaders of the big blocks had to be careful not to mess with this small country because if yugoslavia would side with one major power the other countries might follow suit this is how yugoslavia maintained a.

Special position between the two blocks its citizens were thus privileged and the yugoslav passport was considered one of the best in the world and this is how it worked in berlin during the wall if you're from east berlin and want to go to the west you couldn't go to the.

West unless you're a pensioner o
r have to attend a family funeral across the border if you're from west berlin and want to visit east berlin you need a visa and if you aren't refused at the checkpoint you have to exchange 25 west marks into east marks but if you're from yugoslavia you need.

No visa and don't have to exchange anything the best but certain yugoslavs also took advantage in other ways ciao.

This one when my father was in berlin zlatan was his best friend and from time to time his criminal partner he's also my uncle's oldest and certainly most reliable friend in berlin okay in 1974 when he was 17 zlatko came from zagreb yugoslavia to west berlin to join.

His mother as a tourist he wandered the streets and those streets soon opened many golden opportunities to him he worked in berlin's hottest bars and hippest nightclubs eventually sharing the same career as my uncle but he was also highly proficient in making a little more money a little.

Faster than others the earthen jobs handen unlike my father my uncle or doula zlatko was never caught never prosecuted after 10 years of who knows how many deals burglaries robberies and other shady activities when his first child was on its way he finally opted for a.

More conventional family life and opened up a bakery full comment for the last three months my uncle doula and i happily shared the same job suddenly the caligula management.

Introduced a flat fee and longer working hours but the 12 hour shifts were too exhausting for my uncle and he asked to be replaced more and more after doula refused to replace him any longer they got into a fight and stopped speaking to each other so i remained the only possible.

Replacement for my uncle is foreign after a while my uncle suggested i could perhaps move out of his place dooley proposed i tried to get a flat allowance from the german state so i.

Could live for free but in my case it didn't work soon after i lost my job at caligula so i decided to spend the winter at my parents in serbia until then i had to keep living with my uncle foreign red okay um.

Here foreign shift preparation sabotage.

romantic yes my is myself.

foreign palace hotel hotel sir a foreign.

and is now one man especially contributed to turning the kudam's nightlife scene into a number one attraction for tourists and.

Berliners alike the playboy rolf eden a daring party animal lady killer and businessman he introduced discos striptease and miss elections into prudish 1950s and 1960s west berlin today he's an agent playboy but still a millionaire who's here.

Foreign um is foreign is.

is um is foreign you know is.

Foreign cruz spaghetti special mr foreign no minds.

Today here okay um foreign problem yeah.

it soda foreign don't i haven't seen doula the crowd for a long time.

since me and my uncle moved over to king george and especially since their fallout at caligola dooley hasn't paid dragon a single visit after seven months of silence on his 59th birthday dooley starts visiting my uncle again.

Hello my foreign foreign foreign is.

foreign uh foreign my uncle likes to tell everyone how before the wall came down the kudum was so crowded you couldn't even walk.

But after west berlin ceased to be an island the kudum became a shadow of its former self and its nightlife slowly faded it became hard for my uncle to find the job in his own profession so in 1992 he opened his first bar alex during the 1990s my uncle opened seven.

More bars in west berlin is foreign be is.

Foreign says oh so.

Oh you huh oh is.

Be with foreign more foreign competitions.

Boys i'm melons a honeydew that cat is oh yes that cat is high look at that look in his eye.

Man i wouldn't lie the cat's higher than a kind boys he's high you know i wouldn't lie he's higher than the sky when you see him tipping round and round the block talking no that is you.