Solo Sunny review – a rueful East German gem of ambition, loneliness and faded dreams

Konrad Wolf’s 1980 drama follows a singer trying to escape the drab compromises of GDR life, capturing the melancholy of thwarted ambition with warmth and wit The terrible sadness, tattiness and poisoned idealism of the old GDR is preserved as if in a time capsule in this East German film from 1980; it could be a kind of B-side to Bob Fosse’s Cabaret. The heroine, would-be solo pop singer Sunny, is told by her ungallant MC that she is no Liza Minnelli; Cabaret fans might well incidentally recognise here the brusque German word “bumsen”. Solo Sunny is the work of Konrad “Koni” Wolf, a director with an impressive and strange pedigree: he was a garlanded state-sanctioned artist in East Germany, much admired at the Berlin film festival, whose older brother Markus happened to be one of the highest-ranking officials in the Stasi. It makes Wolf the second most politically compromised German film-maker in history. (The disillusioned communist East German character in Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Ka...

Will Smith recalls the ‘hellish experience’ of drinking a hallucinogenic drink

Will Smith recalls the 'hellish experience' of drinking a hallucinogenic drink. Actor Will Smith called drinking ayahuasca a "hellish experience." Actor Will Smith recalled the experience of drinking the hallucinogenic drink ayahuasca. It is reported by Insider. The artist said that he had a two-year break in his career, during which he went to Peru and tried ayahuasca. He noted that he made "14 journeys", one of which he called "an infernal experience." "I drink, I sit, and then suddenly I start to see how all my money is flying away, and my house, and my career. And I'm trying to grab onto my money and my job. My whole life is falling apart," Smith shared. He added that he then began to hear the voice of his daughter Willow, who was shouting, "Help me!" The shaman present at the ceremony asked the actor to calm down, after which he focused on his daughter and forgot about his home and career. "My money is still disappearing, but I am completely calm, although hell is going on in my head," the artist recalled. According to him, this experience helped him realize that he can survive any difficulties in life, and 99 percent of the things that a person worries about never happen. Ayahuasca is a decoction made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, used as the base of the drink. It is traditionally used in the ancient spiritual practices of the indigenous people of the Amazon - the rites of "communication with the spirits." Representatives of indigenous communities often use them as a way to combat diseases of a different nature, as well as to harmonize relations between tribal members.

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