Photography by Felix Aaron.
Transcending the bourgeois world, being free… not just rejecting structures, but creating radically different relationships. The 2022 film ‘So Long Daddy, See You in Hell’ tells the story of Otto Mühl’s skewed vision of paradise, which led to one of the worst examples of child abuse and abuse of power. The film’s message is that nothing can crush deep, true, impetuous desires and love. But the real story of this film also symbolises the fact that your past always belongs to you, and that you can change it to suit your own identity. The happiness created by rebellion and transformation is always up to us, and this affects our own life as well as how we live together. Clemens Schick and Leo Altaras discuss the issues and questions raised in their latest film.
Leo Altaras. Photography by Felix Aaron.
Clemens Schick: OK, let’s do this. Let’s talk about happiness. I’ll start.
Leo Altras: Please.
CL: My first thought: here in our world, in our lives, we have to put everything in perspective. Our feeling of happiness too. Now you [laughs].
LA: For me, a lot of the old concepts and definitions that you are taught about happiness in philosophy class have nothing to do with happiness at all and seem way too cerebral.
CL: What were you taught?
LA: Well, the definition of happiness according to Plato, Aristotle or Epicurus. Inner contentment, virtue and so on… maybe a humanist education too [laughs].
CL: What does happiness mean to you?
LA: Thinking in a professional context, interpersonal thinking in a social context and the mental side of things. But relating to the outside world helps us learn other things about ourselves.
CL: Yes, I think so too.
LA: You probably define happiness differently. Perhaps in a more sophisticated way. I try not to question my emotional state all the time, I just do my thing. I know that in many ways I’m not where I would like to be yet, but that’s a good thing. At 21, I still have a very rough idea of how one could be happy.
CL: I feel happy the closer I get to myself.
LA: What does that mean?
CL: The older I am, the closer I get to what I really would like to do. Professionally and in life. And the more that happens, the happier I am. But it’s obvious that you, in your early twenties, are at a different point in life than I am at 50. Do you feel you’re free?
LA: Yes. I guess so.
CL: I couldn’t have said that when I was 20, that I’m free.
"I sometimes have the feeling that the “older” generations lack empathy towards us and our problems, although these are actually their own problems. But it’s getting better."
LA: That certainly has something to do with my upbringing and Berlin. But I’m always putting quite a lot of pressure on myself wanting to move forward.
CL: Are you ambitious?
LA: Yes, of course. Are you?
CL: Yes, me too. I grew up with an awareness that I, as a human being, was basically a fake. In my social circles as a child I was considered stupid. When I was 16 or 17, I had to find out for myself what freedom actually means. But that was also my motivation. I had to fight to be seen for who I thought I was.
LA: So where did you feel free at that time?
CL: In the school drama club, in school sports and when I was alone. I already knew from the age of 12 that I wanted to be an actor. When I look back, I know that by that age I already knew a lot about my life. So my instincts were right very early on. But the first time I felt really free was when I was in New York in the Nineties. That was incredible.
LA: Why there?
CL: In New York, I suddenly met people who looked at life and sexuality the way I did. Who weren’t narrow-minded. That liberated me. That’s where I realised that I’m not alone in my desires.
LA: I grew up in Berlin. Being born into a family of artists is a huge privilege. I was taught that nothing is weird and that I can do anything. Today, if I think that I want to do music or theatre for a few years, without any training, then that’s discussed in the family but it remains my decision, my responsibility and my freedom. The outside world encourages me to know that so long as I try, I’ll make progress.
CL: That sounds great. It’s the opposite of how I grew up. I think the story of So Long Daddy, See You in Hell is an example of how structures that make people unfree have to be broken. I’m someone who has always longed for freedom and always wanted to break through established structures.
LA: That’s my impression of you too.
CL: And yet it’s always hard. Why are we so lazy in our thinking? Why do we learn so little from failed visions? And, above all, why do we forget to take children’s perspectives into consideration?
LA: I often ask myself that as well. Maybe it’s because the lifestyles of the generations are so far apart, but I can’t really believe that. I sometimes have the feeling that the “older” generations lack empathy towards us and our problems, although these are actually their own problems. But it’s getting better.
Clemens Schick. Photography by Felix Aaron.
CL: When you’re growing up, you’re told that life is beautiful. And I think that you quickly confuse “beautiful” with “easy”. But then you soon realise how rough life is and that you’re always getting knocked back. And at some point, you understand that that life really is hard and yet it is, or can be, beautiful. I just heard this on a podcast I listened to in the car: “Happiness is more a state of being in the moment – it isn’t just a feeling you have, it’s the process of changing something or resolving something. When you’ve solved a problem, when you’ve overcome a challenge, when you’ve been in a process, the result is a feeling that you can call happiness.”
LA: Absolutely, yes. Today when you’re young, you’re faced with problems that need a radical discussion and I believe that a very strong generation is emerging right now. We’ve got to deal with lots of problems and we’re learning very early on that we have to deal radically with issues such as climate change, political repression and, unfortunately, war. We have no choice.
CL: Yes, it’s really gross the issues you’re growing up with.
LA: What has happened to my awareness, my perception and my attitude over the last few years is really crazy. But I think there are also a lot of people who somehow can’t really deal with it internally and aren’t at the point where they can talk about it because everything is happening all at the same time. A real debate has yet to develop. In some ways, there will be traumas that my generation is unaware of today and that we’ll have to deal with later. And for that we need the older generation, because they’re also responsible.
CL: Sometimes I’m ashamed that my generation has realised so late what we missed in terms of reactions to current problems. I still can’t understand how all this could have happened. It’s getting harder and harder for me to block out the flood of information about disasters.
LA: Sometimes you may have to block it out in order to still be able to function and act.
CL: And above all, we can act. We’re privileged to be among a tiny percentage of the world’s population who can get up in the morning and think about what they want to do with their lives. For me, with that privilege comes responsibility. Unfortunately, it’s obvious that we are failing in this aspiration, but we can still take it on and do things that influence and challenge people.
As featured in SLEEK 75 – HAPPINESS. Available in print and digital here.