The best-selling chair in the world

The story of Hauke Wendler and the Monobloc chair begins in 2013 in a desert in Yemen. More precisely, with a photo from a "Zeit" article showing around 70 white chairs in this very desert: "It was a visually impressive image, with the setting sun casting a sea of shadows over the chairs. And I asked myself what on earth this plastic scrap was doing there in the middle of the desert," says Wendler. And so, without further ado, he and his production company PIER 53 decided to make a film about the Monobloc. The team had just completed two other documentaries, one of which was already showing in cinemas. "We were on a roll and thought it would be a piece of cake for us. Looking back, this approach was really a bit megalomaniacal," says Wendler, laughing.

Financing the film took a full five years, whereas the team had financed other films in two to three months. A lesson that the filmmaker learnt during this time: Just because an idea sounds extremely exciting at first doesn't mean it will become a film. "Many of the people we spoke to were enthusiastic at first and then backed off again after thinking about the topic several times. We really went to every pitch and every festival with the idea. In the end, I felt like someone trying to sell a second-hand car with three wheels," says Wendler.

But after five Fundings were on board, the Documentary was then realised piece by piece. In 2016, the film team travelled to Italy to secure the first material in order to trace the origins of the chair in an old family business. A short time later, another small shock followed: the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein decided to organise an exhibition on the Monobloc. "They had exactly our theme. We literally almost fell off our chairs. Would anyone still be interested in our film afterwards? But you have to put up with it. We carried on," says Wendler.

And anyone who looks at the stories behind the chair that the Hamburg filmmaker has found all over the world will be glad that he stuck to his idea. His journey took him from the USA via Brazil and Uganda to France, Italy and St Pauli. In Uganda on Lake Victoria, he learnt that the chair can greatly improve the quality of life of some people by being used to make wheelchairs. The Monobloc is also an indispensable piece of furniture in India, as it is affordable for almost everyone and can be used everywhere. Or to quote Hauke Wendler from the film: "Because what counts in the end is not the chair, but the fact that you are sitting." And so the film not only looks at the history of its creation, but also at its significance for people and the question of what life is really about. In Germany, the chair - as was almost to be expected - meets with widespread rejection. But that is only one side of the coin.

For one shot in the film, PIER 53 had to buy 150 of the plastic chairs itself. They were neatly assembled on the beach in St. Peter Ording to form the word Monobloc. "The chairs were all standing around in our office afterwards. We now still have 48 of them. We sent 80 of them to Ghana alone," reveals Hauke Wendler. He doesn't have a single Monobloc at home, only four of the chairs can be found in the weekend hut. They are simply practical - and fulfil their purpose. Even in the desert of Yemen.