KREATOR TODAY: JÜRGEN "VENTOR" REIL, MILAND "MILLE" PETROZZA, SAMI YLI-SIRNIÖ, FRÉDÉRIC LECLERCQ

CORDULA KABLITZ-POST: KREATOR – HATE & HOPE (2025) - BERLIN & BEYOND 2026

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Portrait of a foundational German thrash metal band

This film, of particular interest to fans of the thrash metal band musical genre, traces the foundational German thrash metal band Kreator back to its origins forty+ years ago in Essen, Germany (1982). Their first album was called Endless Pain, but they were a bright and attractive group of boys and seem quite nice men some of them vegans who have llived sober for thirty years. A father of one of the boys who was a miner said, "Don't go down in the mine. It's the worst thing you can do." The original members tell how as teens they got some guitars on sale. They were not musical and, like other bands of this genre, acquired their chops later, while performing. Yet their work was sufficiently newsworthy to get management and a recording contract fairly early on. They only rank around 31st among the thrash metal bands, but in certain aspects, particularly the songwriting, they have gotten special mention. Eleven different musicians have played in the band, and only two of the original ones remain, both age 59, but they are the lead singer , Mille Petrozza, and the drummer, Jürgen Reil.

Kreator come in for praise on several counts. Lyrics have been mentioned. For playing tight, disciplined music. But also for being the only heavy metal band that came out overtly against the extreme right. Otherwise only punk bands did that. This, someone says, shows the leader was closer to puink. Band members are shown visiting a concentration camp and commenting that after rthe war Germany held off from right wing populism for 10 or 20 years longer than the rest of Europe, but now it has arrived and is viewed as "not so bad" since France and Holland have got it.

With the other bands Destruction, Sodom and Tankard, Kreator forms "the Big Teutonic Four" thrash metal bands. The bands have long wanted to play a joint concert, and finally there is one, a huge amphitheater gathering. But then, just when the concert is beginning, it has to be cancelled and the crowd ordered to go home because of weather. Indeed, a terrible storm does come, so they have to admit it was necessary. This winds up being a painful non-event, but the filmmakers get to do some interviews with representatives of the various bands. We can imagine what the passionate longtime fan who has come from Costa Rica to hear his metal gods feels about this. (Similar stories of devotion are told in other metal band docs.)

There aren't many intimate moments captured at first. One band member does show himself cleaning his teeth and putting on scent. He says he prepares for the crowd and his fellow band members like he was going on a date. One of the highlights of the film is the rare early footage of the band when it was in its infancy. Tall lead singer song-writer "Mille" Petrozza often reminisces for the camera about earlier days but no major dramas, conflicts, or scandals come out. He says he has no belief in the concept of "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll"; that life can only be lived, if at all, for a few years in the early twenties, otherwise it will kill you, and he could fill a whole graveyard with all the musicians he has known who have died during his career. There's also mention of the toll of heavy metal headbanging on musicians' bodies: displaced retinas, and neck problems.

Things seem to be going well with the current band of singer "Mille," drummer "Ventor," and the Finnish lead guitarist Sami Yli Sirniö, a member since 2001, and French bassist Frédéric Leclercq, with the band since 2020. There is the obligatory tour coverage - though the band has taken a year off for recording: the Far East, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia are mentioned; Japan seems a particularly friendly venue, but coverage of an Indian concert is awesome. There is also history of the bank's first tour of America. It was fun, but hardly an experience of grand success. One venue turned out to be a pizzeria. Kreator has toured every year, "Mille" says, and must come to America more often because it forgets them faster. An observer says Kreator is the only German thrash metal band from the Eighties that is touring on this level.

In the end, viewers of this film at Berlin & Beyond will feel director Cordula Kablitz-Post has performed the feat of taking something done frequently - a documentary about a heavy metal band - and still conveyed the sense that this one is special.

Kreator: Hate & Hope,110 min., premiered at Filmfest München Jul. 1, 2025 with a German theatrical opening Sept. 4, showing also at Kinofest London Mar. 4, 2026 and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Mar. 5. It was screened for this review as part of Berlin & Beyond (San Francisco & Berkeley, Calif., Mar. 19-23, 2026). Showtime:
Showtime: SFMOMA’s Phyllis Wattis Theater – March 21 at 3:30 PM – [B]Buy Tickets[/B]

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.