Instead of living in his house, Erwin spends most of his time right next to it – in a mobile home outfitted with his laptop, bed, coffee machine and television. Jan Soldat's portrait of the 58-year-old man likewise concentrates the essential in one small space and altogether avoids the ornamental accessories characteristic of standard home visiting documentaries. The conversation unfolds within a few soberly framed takes. Erwin shows the filmmaker his current web-cam set-up for sex chats, tells him about the two loves of his life (plus providing care for their female partners and children), familial fall-outs, and worries about impending governmental cuts to his poverty assistance.

Director Biography

Born in 1984 in Karl-Marx-Stadt (GDR), Jan Soldat worked at Chemnitzer Filmwerkstatt from 2007-2008. From October 2008 he studied film and television at the Academy of Film and Television "Konrad Wolf" in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Jan Soldat has been a guest of the Berlinale several times: in 2010 with "Be Loved" in the program of the Berlinale Shorts, 2012 with "LAW and ORDER" in the Panorama and with "CRAZY DENNIS TIGER" in the program of Generation 14plus, where he also was a member of the International Jury. His diploma film "The Incomplete" won the Best Short Film Award at the Rome Film Festival and was nominated for the German Film Critics' Award. His four-part series documenting prison-roleplays had its premieres at the Viennale 2014, Rotterdam 2015 and in the program of the Berlinale Panorama 2015. Two of his works, "Coming Of Age" and "Happy Happy Baby", deal with the phenomenon of adult babies. After his experimental documentary "Protocols" in 2017 about men which want to be slaughtered and eaten, he worked mostly as editor and dramaturgical advicer. In November 2019 he started a series of "First Date Short Films", portraits about gay men and their sexual fantasies in tension between documentary and pornography.