Wolfgang Rohde

Germany's most popular punk rock band "Die Toten Hosen" ("The dead pants") celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2012. In his film "Nichts als die Wahrheit - 30 Jahre Die Toten Hosen" ("Nothing but the truth - 30 years Die Toten Hosen"), established documentary filmmaker Eric Friedler succeeds at presenting an interior view of a band that evolved from an enfant terrible to a pop culture icon and whose work mirrors German history. Friedler takes the audience on a two-hour long roller coaster ride about success and failures.

Tommie is the absolute loser in his home district of Cologne-Kalk: no money, no apartment of his own, no girlfriend. In the exhaust workshop where he toils, the foreman is constantly angry with him. But Tommie is in a great mood: The video freak dreams enthusiastically through the fantasy world of film art, preferably with the bust sex star Gianna S. in the leading role. Tommie collects exhaust pipes. When he steals a particularly capital specimen from Jupp's swank Mercedes, he gets into real trouble. He has no choice but to return the exhaust to Jupp, but his deadly ultimatum of procuring a case of the rare beer brand "Ramsdorfer Kölsch" by seven o'clock in the evening proves to be insanely difficult. Because at the very same time, "Gianna S." is expected in town...