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      Freischwimmer (Head Under Water)

      2008 List
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      Audience Member In a small German town, life seems to be calm and peaceful. Everyone seems to be cheerful and successful. Everyone except Rico. Rico is deaf. And a bad athlete. And not at all successful with the girls. His father died under mysterious circumstances and he misses him badly. Rico finds a soulmate in his art and German teacher Herr Wegener. Herr Wegener soon becomes a substitute for his father and they start to spend a lot of time together, after Robert, the school's best swimmer, gets murdered. Robert was Regine's boyfriend and Regine is the most popular girl in school and of course Rico has a crush on her. Rico flees reality by creating an own world: a miniature-railway world, where is God and can do whatever he wants to do. Herr Wegener shows Rico, how he is ecaping reality. He has perfected Rico's way...by creating wax-figures of the people that surround them. People they hate. And what starts as an ecape from reality, an escape to a world where they can do what they like to do; soon ends up as a rehersal for reality. They get tangled up in lust for murder and brutality and cross the line between fantasy and reality. This movie is sometimes surreal, but often also terrifying close to reality. It is hard to tell whom you like and whom you despise, or whom you can trust. All characters seem to deserve to get pampered and tortured to death at the same time. It is no coincidence, that the school, where most of the action takes place, is called "Kafka-Gymnasium". A lot of unique details create a tempting atmosphere. An atmosphere that reminded me of "The Young Poisoner's Handbook". Rico's struggle to get out of his loner-position gets emphasized by the song, that the school choir is singing. "Die Gedanken sind frei", a German revolutionary song, which's message is "you can do what you want, put me in jail or torture me, I am still able to think what I want to think. All thoughts are free and can never be known or controlled by others". And Rico gets out of his loner-position. He achieves what he wants- at any cost. Oh, and of course this movie has great actors to offer! August Diehl, Jürgen Tarrach and Fritzi Haberlandt. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Director
      Andreas Kleinert