Teenage Angst

Another good movie from the excellent Picture This! If you watch the trailer you´ll get a good idea of what´s it about.

 

Other good German films are for example ”Out of hand” , ”The child I never was” and ”Young Törless”. Actually the last mentioned is also about a moral dilemma, like ”Teenage Angst” . Perhaps that´s a central theme for more German directors? Another film with a moral dilemma is of course the well known ”Paranoid Park” .

Max And Moritz RELOADED

Max and Moritz (Willi Gerk and Kai Michael Mueller) are two young brothers living an adventurous life of petty crime in Hamburg, Germany. After the two boys steal a car and get into an accident, with the adolescent daughter of a Hamburg senator sitting in the passenger seat, the two scoundrels are packed up and sent to a boot camp. This military- style camp is run by Axel and Henry, two former East German soldiers who still strongly believe in communism but are secretly gay lovers. Max and Moritz steal another car…a red Ferrari owned by small- town pimp Morder- Hanne (Ben Becker). The natonalistic sadist teaches the boys a painful lesson, but Max and Moritz wouldn´t be Max and Moritz if they let this weekend- fascist get them down…and when they aquire the key to their military school´s ordinance depot, things start to change. A humorous and action packed look at two troublesome boys with a flair for violence! Some similarities in style with this film.

This German film from 2005 is really fun!

Warning: Contains no illustrations of religion, catholic priests or moral behaviour.

Punish Me (orig.title:Verfolgt)

Upon release from jail, Jan (Kostja Ullmann) becomes the newest charge of a much older parole officer, Elsa (Maren Kroymann). The young man seeks to provoke her- to shake her from her routine, and he succeeds by drawing the woman bit by bit into an intoxicating, sadomasochistic affair. But when reality breaches the ethical vacuum in which their relationship exists, everything in their lives will abruptly change.

 

Awards:

-Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Film Festival in 2006.

-New Faces Award at New Faces Awards, Germany, in 2007.

-German Film Critics Award at German Film Critics Association Awards in 2008.

CRAZY

Crazy is about good friends and falling in love, making music and breaking all the rules, longing and loneliness- about growing into adulthood, deciding for yourself and believing that the future will be just fine. 16-year-old Benni (Robert Stadlober) is sent by his parents to a boarding school. It´s his fifth school, and his parents are praying that he will finally overcome his math deficiency and grduate. For Benni, life isn´t about math…it´s about dealing with his typical teenage insecurities, which are compounded by the fact that he is partially handicapped. Although Benni doesn´t end up learning much about math, he learns a whole lot about life. On the last day of school at the big summer party, Benni´s mother tells him that she has found another school where math isn´t so important. But Benni has no intention of being the new student again. He has other plans.

Out Of Hand

Sebastian and Paul are two teenage trublemakers that spend their time drinking and stealing. It’s the thrill, the sense of testing their limits…and the wolf-like nature deep inside that attracts them to each other. Sebastian emerges as the dominant figure in the pair, always wanting to go one step further. One day they abduct 30-year-old Sonja and drag her back to an abandoned factory, but with no plan for what comes next. Paul becomes more distant with Sebastian as he starts to feel attracted to Sonja, trying to help her as much as possible. While Sebastian, not admitting even to himself that he has fallen in love with Paul, feels hurt and jealous…and becomes capable of anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Child I Never Was

Between 1962 and 1966, four schoolboys were abused, tortured and killed in Germany’s Ruhr District. Their tormentor, Jürgen Bartsch, was fifteen at the time of his first crime; nineteen when he was caught. His mesmerizing confession, which frames the re-enactment of his crimes and the circumstances through which they came about, forms the heart of this journey into the dark reaches of a troubled mind. Bartsch’s cold and severe adoptive parents, his terror-filled years at a Catholic boarding school, the discovery of his sexual attraction to boys, his desperate longing to never have to grow up-these an other emotionally charged aspects of his life unfold before us, step by troubling step. Ultimately, however, it is the outward normality of his everyday life that underscores the horror of his deeds. Based on original letters and statements by convicted child murderer Jürgen Bartsch himself, this portrait of an adolescent serial killer is haunting and touching, and sheds keen insight on what social constraints can do to the impressionable. Directed by Kai S. Pieck, this film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, and won Best Foreign Film at the 2003 San Fransisco Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.