Rent Boys [Blu-ray]

Description

Since the 1960s, West Berlin's most significant transportation center, Bahnhof Zoo train station, served a function as a meeting place for groups of male prostitutes from Eastern Europe. Now, filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim follows the personal and historic impact of the hustler culture that emerged at Bahnhof Zoo by filming five grown men who spent their youths as rent boys at the station. Each of the subjects' stories reveals the expected obstacles: abuse, drug addiction and poverty. But the men also display a surprising tenderness and determination to move on. At the same time, each man must cope with the emotional and physical consequences of past decisions. "Rent Boys" is an accurate and sympathetic chronicle of the historic causes and lasting effects of Berlin's hustler trade. By capturing a broad array of voices from former rent boys and clients, to the counselors and public servants who offer them treatment, von Praunheim creates an engrossing historic survey from the intimate stories of those whose lives intersected at Bahnhof Zoo.