Benjamin, a 16-year-old with lousy grades, switches to a boarding school in order to eventually reach grammar school. Adjusting to his new environment is difficult as he has to struggle with being a teen... specially when he falls in love to the school's dream girl, Malen.
Acting
Robert Stadlober's unfiltered physicality, zero vanity.
Writing
Dialogue that actually sounds like teenagers, not screenwriters.
Direction
Schmid lets scenes breathe in uncomfortable silence.
Director
Hans-Christian Schmid
Robert Stadlober
Benjamin Lebert
Tom Schilling
Janosch Schwarze
Oona-Devi Liebich
Malen
Julia Hummer
Marie
Christoph Ortmann
Kugli
Joseph Bolz
Dünner Felix
Dagmar Manzel
Juliane Lebert
Burghart Klaußner
Klaus Lebert
Mira Bartuschek
Paula Lebert, Benjamins Schwester
Jörg Gudzuhn
Herr Falkenstein
Katharina Müller-Elmau
Frau Westphalen
Germain Wagner
Herr Richter
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Robert Stadlober was 19 but spent weeks at a real boarding school undercover to capture Benjamin's physicality authentically.
One of the first German films to cast an actually disabled lead in a coming-of-age story rather than using disability as metaphor — still rare two decades later.
DE
