Heartbreaking premiere: YouTube stars celebrate film about your life!

On January 12, 2025, the premiere of the feature film "Leben is now - The Real Life Guys" took place in Darmstadt. The film is based on the life of the YouTube stars Johannes and Philipp Mickenbecker from Bickenbach and was presented in the Kinopolis, where Kinopolis Managing Director Gregory was present.

Johannes Mickenbecker was impressed by the emotional premiere, but noticed that he did not feel like a film star. The film deals with the tragic history of the Mickenbeck family, which includes the death of his sister Elli in 2018 and his brother Philipp in 2021. The topics of courage, joie de vivre, friendship, hope and faith are treated in the film.

content and production of the film

"Life is now" contains excerpts from the real YouTube videos of the family and comments from their followers. Director Maria Anna Westholzer and producer Stefan Westerwelle worked on the project that was completed after six years. The filming took place in Lower Saxony, Iceland and Hesse, including on a farm near Schluechtern.

The YouTube channel "The Real Life Guys", which was founded by Johannes and Philipp Mickenbecker, currently has 1.8 million subscribers. This channel was launched in 2016 and realized numerous do-it-yourself projects. On January 16, 2025, the film will be released across Germany and bears the predicate "valuable" from the film rating office.

The Mickenbecker brothers not only built their YouTube channel, but also founded a GbR and later a GmbH with seven employees to realize their projects. Philipp Mickenbeck announced in 2020 that he suffers from lymph gland cancer and died on June 9, 2021 in the Darmstadt Clinic.

The YouTube channel "The Real Life Guys" has inspired young people to actively shape their free time with its creative projects, such as the construction of a manned submarine of bathtubs and a roller coaster in the hardware store. More information about the channel and its history can be found on the Wikipedia page.

The preparations for the film and the work of the Mickenbecker brothers illustrate the tireless spirit that they have maintained even in difficult times, and set a sign of the fitness of their creative visionary ideas.