A knife in his pocket, adrenaline in his veins and only one dream on his mind: to be a gangster – and the biggest one at that. Yehya was 15 years old and close to realizing his dream when he ran into filmmaker Christian Stahl in the stairwell. Yehya wasn’t just the nice boy from next door, he was also “the Boss of Sonnenallee” – one of the gangster runners in the Berlin borough of Neukölln. And gangster runners want to make it in the gangster world. In the eyes of the authorities, he is a “dangerous criminal”; in his own eyes, Yehya is “one of the top ten of Neukölln. I’ve got my own prosecutor!” Yehya, the son of Palestinian refugees from Lebanon, a Rütli school student with straight As – and a jailbird doing time. At age 17, Yehya was convicted of robbery and sentenced to three years without parole.

Director Christian Stahl follows Yehya through his years in prison, at the same time also following his family in Neukölln. The viewer is there to watch as Yehya’s image of the world and gangsterism wobbles, as he quickly climbs the ladder of prison hierarchy, as he turns to Islam, and as he suddenly himself becomes a victim while in prison.

His father tries to solve the family problems with a pilgrimage to Mecca, Yehya’s brothers follow in his footsteps, and the government wants to deport Yehya or send him back to the refugee camp in Beirut. His parents, who as refugees in Germany were not allowed to work for 14 years and stayed in their own world, are in despair.

Gangster Runner presents an impressive portrait of a “dangerous criminal” whose charm, criminal energy, and reflexivity astound and shock. Caught between Muslim traditions and gangster dreams, macho image and mosque, the ever-present war in his parents’ foreign homeland and the battle to survive here in Europe. Gangster runner immerses the viewer in a world that is the focus of intense integration debates, even as the film maintains a certain distance.

Gangster Runner gets up close and personal – and reveals what the consequences can be when you want to be the best.

Director: Christian Stahl
Writer: Christian Stahl
Cinematographers: Ralf Ilgenfritz
Editors: Johannes Fritsche, Gines Olivares
Music: Tilmann Dehnhard
Sound: Matthias Kreitschmann
Commissioning editors: Søren Schumann, rbb/ARTE; Burkhard Althoff, ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel; Manuela Jödicke, rbb
Producers: Gunter Hanfgarn, Andrea Ufer
Channels: rbb/ARTE, ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel
Sponsor: FFA

– Max-Ophüls-Preis, Saarbrücken Film Festival, 2011
– New Berlin Film Award, Achtung Berlin, 2011
– Semaine de la critique, Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland), 2011
– Doclisboa, Lisbon (Portugal), 2011
– PRIX EUROPA, Honorable Mention in the IRIS Category, 2011
– Festival des Deutschen Films, Paris (France), 2011
– Göteborg International Film Festival (Swed), 2012
– Best Documentary, Würzburg International Film Weekend, 2012