SHAYNE

Ricky Shayne briefly streaked like a comet through West German popular culture from 1967 to 1972. Born in Cairo, raised in Beirut, he became a star in Rome in the booming Beat scene. He was then imported to Germany, where there was more money to be made. Shayne found himself in Berlin between BRAVO and ZDF Hit Parade, celebrated and exoticized. Stephan Geene, who was 10 years old at the time, was changed forever by this phenomenon, and now explores his fascination.
The encounter with the nervous, rough-edged Ricky Shayne, today 72, survivor of his own star and teen magazine history (the magazine BRAVO alone dedicated two of its celebrity puzzles to him), leads Geene down a variety of paths: including with Shayne’s sons Tarek and Imran, both now the same age as Ricky during his Berlin period and the spitting image of him (at the time).
A serial TV anti-portrait, framed by rehearsals for a gala, the attempt to give one last moment to an aborted career; an architect thinks out loud about photography and theatricality and the possibility of mounting a gala as a ruin, in order to do justice to the figure of Ricky Shayne, to his ruptures and contradictions.
by Stephan Geene (Written and Directed by)
with Ricky Shayne, Tarek Shayne Tabet, Imran Shayne Tabet, Kerstin Cmelka, Claudia Basrawi, Stephan Geene
Germany 2019 German, English, French, Arabic 120' Colour World premiere | Documentary form

With

  • Ricky Shayne
  • Tarek Shayne Tabet (Ricky Shayne / Himself)
  • Imran Shayne Tabet (Ricky Shayne / Himself)
  • Kerstin Cmelka (Architect)
  • Claudia Basrawi
  • Stephan Geene

Crew

Written and Directed by Stephan Geene
Cinematography Volker Sattel
Editing Stephan Geene
Music Ricky Shayne, Justus Köhncke
Sound Design Manuela Schininà
Sound Manja Ebert
Production Design Merle Vorwald
Costumes Merle Vorwald
Assistant Director Caroline Kirberg
Producer Stephan Geene

Produced by

bbooksz av

Stephan Geene

Stephan Geene works as an author, filmmaker, and curator in Berlin. Two of his films have been shown in the Forum Expanded program.

Filmography

2006 AFTER EFFECT; 75 min. 2014 umsonst; 93 min., Forum Expanded 2014 2019 SHAYNE; 124 min., Forum Expanded 2019

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025