Utopia Ltd.

In her documentary Utopia Ltd. director Sandra Trostel accompanies the up-and-coming band 1000 Robota for three years with her camera, thereby sketching an extremely engaging and realistic view of the mills of the music industry, where high ambitions are mercilessly crushed by commercial pressures. At the beginning, Anton Spielmann (18), Basti Muxfeldt (17) and Jonas Hinnerkort (17) still have big goals. In a time where there is only repetition, they want to create something completely new. With their New Wave Punk they don't want to remind of good old times, but to cause emergence. When they get a record deal with the small but quite renowned label Tapete Records after only a few months and get a lot of positive press for their concerts, their goals seem to be within reach.

But can ideals like the ones 1000 Robota pursue withstand the consumer pressure of society? While the record company (understandably) aims for the largest possible group of buyers and hopes for corresponding compromises on the part of the band, Anton, Jonas and Basti are not willing to adapt their music to the industry's specifications. In addition, they have to reconcile tour stress and high school graduation and make the difficult decision whether to participate in Stefan Raab's Bundesvision Song Contest to promote the new record. And in the end it seems to be true that there is no place for self-willed art and self-determining enthusiasm in this society.

At the moment everybody seems to believe that it is damn easy to become a superstar. After all, that's what many casting shows make you believe. And maybe it is actually easier than ever to become famous for a short time. But becoming and staying truly successful with something you believe in and can really stand behind remains an unattainable dream for most. Because there is little room for creativity in an industry where only sales and download numbers matter. This is something 1000 Robota must also experience. But if you think that Utopia Ltd. portrays the band merely as poor victims of our media society, you are sorely mistaken.

Sandra Trostel not only shows the pressure on the band, but also on the small record label, but also that the guys often get in their own way. Especially Anton Spielmann seems with his not exactly small ego as if he is constantly balancing on the border of megalomania. Even though this doesn't always come across as sympathetic, in the end the guys deserve credit for not being willing to sell themselves out for commercial success. After some of the chances that would have opened up for the band, such as the participation in the Bundesvision Song Contest, many up-and-coming musicians would certainly have licked their fingers. But it is the conscious decision against these chances, against compromises, that makes 1000 Robota authentic musicians who are to be taken seriously - no matter what you as a viewer might think of their music.

Thus, Utopia Ltd. is not only a very entertaining portrait of an up-and-coming band, but also a kind of countermovement to the everyone-can-be-a-superstar mentality that has taken hold in the minds of young people and that has caused many a big dream to come crashing down. Maybe the dream shouldn't be to be a superstar loved by everyone. To have the possibility to do what you love and what is really close to your heart makes you much happier, even if only relatively few like-minded people are interested in it. A utopia? Maybe, but one more desirable than selling your soul for five minutes of big-time fame. And this realization alone makes the music documentary well worth seeing in the end!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp