directed by Lorenz Findeisen, documentary, 72 min, eng subtitles
written by Lorenz Findeisen
French engineer imagined facing the housing crisis in Europe with a prefabricated concrete panel that would make it possible to assemble thousands of apartments. Both a capitalist invention and a Soviet symbol, these concrete slab buildings soon conquered the landscape of most (not only) Central and Eastern European cities and towns. In Concrete Stories, people from different countries who live in ‘prefab’ homes tell their stories related to this specific industrial housing projects born at the time of clashing ideologies between East and West. The film presents a European tale of standardisation that has dominated the lives of entire generations, connecting various stories from all around Europe to tackle the stigma that concrete panel buildings often have. A story of public housing in Europe told via a polyphony of voices of people who live in the housing projects, as well as those who built them, from 1948 to today.
Followed by a debate on Urbanism.