Germany 2016/17
Drama, 114 min, colour
Director: Alain Gsponer
With Jannis Niewöhner, Emilia Schüle, Alicia von Rittberg, Fahri Yardim
This is the film version of Ödön von Horvath's novel of the same name, written in 1937. The story takes place in the near future and depicts a completely digitalized world where moral values and feelings are no longer of importance. Everything revolves aroundhigh performance and efficiency. “Weaklings” are sifted out and forced to live in slums.
The scene is set high in the mountains in a camp for high performers, which is hermetically sealed off from the rest of society. Every year, the best high school graduates compete against each other here for a place at one of the elite universities. One of these students is Zach. He is not at all interested in this dogged competitiveness and distances himself from the others. Nadesh, a very ambitious student, is fascinated by him but she soon realizes that Zach's attitude puts the entire system at risk.
One day Zach meets the rebellious Ewa outside camp. She is part of a group of youngsters who have turned against the meritocratic society and live illegally in the woods surrounding the camp. But when one of the students is murdered , the situation begins to escalate.
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