Beerland

Beerland

Matt Sweetwood hails from the Midwest. He has lived in Germany for over ten years, but still the people and their culture remain a mystery to him. He undertakes a last-ditch attempt to figure the place out: By exploring the heart of German culture, their beer. If he delves into their rites and rituals, explores all the contradictions and stereotypes, will that make him, finally, a part of them? The infinite variety of beers, breweries and beer fests, the age-old history of beer, is more overwhelming than the American ever imagined it to be. The trail of his research leads him to places far off the beaten tourist path, light-years away from the Oktoberfest. He encounters people whose dialect he barely understands. Amazingly. he finds that a country as small a Germany is subdivided into a thousand different tongues and customs, with beer as the lowest common denominator.  In BEERLAND, Sweetwood discovers a land full of oddities and contradictions. The new Teutons are deathly serious and silly at the same time, tradition-bound and weirdly visionary. Through his research, he finally gains a real bond to the people, finding friends where he least expected them.  

BR / Telepool Treatment Award for Best Documentary at Munich Film Fest 2010