Title: BZ
Description: Documentary book about 80 rebels of the Danish squatter movement. First they occupied the old bread factory named Rutana in Copenhagen in fall 1981. For the next 9 years BZ played endless games with the police and authorities, launching one creative action after another -- like digging a tunnel under Korsgade away from the occupied house "Allotria" so a police force of about 1,000 men struggled to gain entry into an empty and abandoned house. Several hundred young people joined the movement, which many of them saw as their new family. Eventually, clashes between BZ and the police became more violent and cobblestones were replaced by firebombs or slings with steel balls. All of Denmark held its breath as in the autumn of 1986 BZ laid siege to the entire residential quarter of Ryesgade in Østerbro. In 1990, the last occupied house was cleared, but when 25 years later Peter Øvig began research for a book on BZ, he found the family was still alive. Even before he decided to write the book though, his project had already raised a fierce resistance in the inner circle of the old BZ, whose members urged everyone to boycott the project. "You have no chance - take it!" was a BZ motto and Peter Øvig chose to involve the resistance in his book. -- Based on back cover description.
Subjects: Squatters, History, Squatter settlements, Social aspects, Social movements, Youth movements, Communal living, Housing, Social conditions
Places: Denmark
Time periods: 20th century