Punching the World
German Film Forum

In early-2000s eastern Germany, brothers Philipp (12) and Tobias (9) watch their family slowly break apart while building an unfinished house. Unemployment, silence, and old wounds leave the boys alone in vast fields and clear quarry waters that offer brief freedom. Nature feels endless, but real guidance is scarce. Older youths draw Philipp in with promises of belonging—yet their path carries violence and fear of outsiders. As a refugee shelter is planned nearby, quiet tensions turn sharp. A clear-eyed, tender portrait of youth caught between loss, nature, and the hard search for a place to stand.