Armin Steeb is adrift: just finished with school, living with his middle-class parents, clueless about finding work. He tries connecting with a girl, he engages in risky sex with strangers in public toilets, he goes to job interviews. He also sends an anonymous letter to a local Munich newspaper, claiming responsibility for a fatal road accident. He fitfully pursues notoriety as he goes through life nearly without affect. What will it take to get Armin to smile?
Acting
Von Jascheroff's dead-eyed vacancy is genuinely disturbing.
Direction
Hochhäusler makes Munich suburbs feel like a prison.
Director
Christoph Hochhäusler
Constantin von Jascheroff
Armin Steeb
Manfred Zapatka
Martin Steeb
Victoria Trauttmansdorff
Marianne Steeb
Nora Waldstätten
Katja Fichtner
Devid Striesow
Martin Steeb jr.
Florian Panzner
Stefan Steeb
Thomas Dannemann
Herr Kleine
Laura Tonke
Christiane Steeb
Martin Kiefer
Richard Gassner
Walter Gontermann
Herr Hülsmann
Jörg Pose
Herr Esken
Thomas Meinhardt
Ernst Matuschek
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of the 'Berlin School' movement — slow, alienated, deeply suspicious of post-reunification German prosperity. Hochhäusler studied with Harun Farocki.
The real 2002 case that loosely inspired this: a student confessed to a murder he didn't commit, receiving actual jail time before the truth emerged. Armin gets off easier — or does he?
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