Dr. Ketel

Berlin in the very near future. The public health system has broken down and a flourishing black market for prescription drugs has emerged. Dr. Ketel is working as an underground doctor on the streets and in the backyards. The drugs he needs for his work he steals from the few remaining pharmacies. The American security guard Louise has made it her priority to bring Ketel down. The renegade doctor now faces a life-altering decision: Is his work philanthropic or is he a resistance fighter. He can convince Louise to join his cause, but other security guards pick up where she left and the hunt continues.

The scenes have an almost documentary authenticity, they are shot in black and white, except for one single pivotal scene. With marked austerity and a naturalistic feel, Linus de Paoli turns his debut into a dystopia, which seems eerily possible in this age of unleashed neo-liberalism. He filmed on location in the former problematic borough Neukölln, where his father used to work as a medical doctor. Dr. Ketel forces society to take an uncomfortable look at itself and realizes that a crumbling health system, creeping poverty and a disintegration of public stewardship have become daily phenomena of our time. –Oldenburg Film Festival