"Schultze gets the blues" tells the story of Schultze. Schultze has spent his whole life in a small town in Saxony-Anhalt near the river Saale. The only distinctive feature of the town is a huge mountain of potash slag from the neighboring mine. Schultze's life, divided between work (below ground) — to which he owes his chronic cough — and the pub, the allotment, folk music and fishing (above ground), is rudely interrupted when he and his mates Manfred and Jürgen are made redundant. As entropy sets in and maintaining the daily routine deteriorates into a farce, Schultze discovers a life on the other side of the hill. From his polka-powered accordion the amateur musician coaxes the fiery zydeco music of the Southern States, which threatens to disrupt the respectable anniversary celebration of his local music club. Faced with the choice of sliding back into the old ways or ending up as the local freak, Schultze makes a decision which will take him deep into the swamps and bayous of Louisiana ...and back again...

A little way to the south of the metropolis Berlin lies the Mansfelder Land. The landscape is dotted with enormous slagheaps, the poignant remains of a bygone era of mining. This is where the story of "Schultze gets the blues" begins. Extensive research there and in the Southern States of the USA preceded the shoot. From the very beginning we wanted the film to be set in real locations and involve the local people. 1 wanted to systematically explore the boundary between documentary and fiction: Ordinary people worked alongside established professional actors, real locations and situations were strictly composed visually, and reality and the film mutually influenced and changed each other. This was particularly the case when we were shooting at a depth of 730 meters at extreme temperatures and humidity in the shaft of a potash mine...The concept of "heightened reality" was further developed during the shoot in Texas and Louisiana. And working with local people, both "at home" and in the Southern States, was a pure delight. It was certainly an advantage to be shooting with an experienced, and relatively small, documentary crew, who could adapt to varying circumstances — as, for example, when our boat lost its way, by full moon, in the maze of the Louisiana bayous. We visited real-life music Festivals, like the' sausage festival. in New Braunfels/Texas ("the ten day salute to sausage"...), went dancing (in "Bourque's Club" in the middle of nowhere and with a Sheriff by the name of "Robberie"...), went to concerts, attempting to do more than simply record, and to free ourselves of conventional expectations and images of the USA. "Schultze gets the blues" is not just straightforward documentation, but also a Fantasy about how reality is perceived, and further how an individual, Schultze, nonetheless comes to terms with life.