The end of a summer, a sleepy fishing port on the Baltic Sea and the beginning of a great feeling that must not be: Shortly before the start of the new school year, the 18-year-old Christian falls in love with his new English teacher Stella Petersen. In a moment of unexpected lightness and freedom, in the dunes and seascape far away from the small town, Stella and Christian discover a shared longing and an attraction to each other, the intensity of which both overwhelmed. But soon after class has begun again, the secret relationship between the young teacher and her pupil threatens the scandal ...
Cinematography
Baltic light so gorgeous it almost justifies the bad decisions.
Acting
Koschitz and Nay sell the doomed chemistry.
Direction
Schmidt lets the landscape do half the seducing.
Director
Thorsten Schmidt
Julia Koschitz
Stella Petersen
Jonas Nay
Christian Voigt
Uwe Preuss
Wilhelm Voigt
Thure Lindhardt
Ulrik Quedens
Alexander Held
Rektor Block
Nina Petri
Jutta Voigt
Johannes Allmayer
Jürgen Kugler
Henny Reents
Frauke Bruns
Klaus Manchen
Hermann Beyer
Johann Petersen
Maximilian Gehrlinger
Georg Bisanz
Anna Herrmann
Stefanie
Rainer Reiners
Fischereiexperte
Florian Anderer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Siegfried Lenz's 1998 novel of the same name, a staple of German school curricula that teachers now side-eye.
The Baltic setting isn't just pretty—it's historically loaded territory, once divided by Cold War borders, now haunted by different trespasses.
DE
