Tschick (2016)

Directed by: Fatih Akin | 93 minutes | comedy, drama, family | Actors: Anand Batbileg, Nicole Mercedes Müller, Tristan Göbel, Aniya Wendel, Justina Humpf, Paul Busche, Jerome Hirthammer, Max Kluge, Udo Samel, Anja Schneider, Nadine Dubois, Henning Peker, Uwe Bohm, Katerina Poladjan

Wolfgang Herrndorf (1965-2013) started his career as a cartoonist and illustrator. From 2002 he also wrote novels. The German author achieved his greatest commercial success with the youth novel ‘Tschick’ from 2010, about two fourteen-year-old misfits who steal an old Lada and drive through East Germany for a summer. For inspiration, Herrndorf said he reread the books he himself devoured when he was young—including “Lord of the Flies” and “Huckleberry Finn”—to see if those stories were really as good as he remembered them. “But also because I wanted to experience who I was as a twelve-year-old. I soon noticed that those books had three things in common. The adult closest to the protagonist soon no longer plays a significant role, a long journey is made and there is a lot of water. With those elements I tried to make a more or less realistic childhood story. Sailing on the Elbe in a boat sounded ridiculous and castaways are no longer of this time. The only thing I could think of was something with a car. Two boys steal a car. No water is involved, but I could have made up the plot in a few minutes.”

‘Tschick’ is all about 14-year-old Maik Klingenberg (Tristan Göbel), an outcast whom his classmates call ‘Psycho’. He secretly dreams of the prettiest girl in the class, but this Tatiana (Aniya Wendel) doesn’t even notice him. It is equally desolate at home; Although he has a good relationship with his mother (Anja Schneider), her relationship with vodka is stronger. Every summer she goes to a ‘beauty farm’ to kick the habit. His father (Uwe Bohm) is a property developer, but things are not going as well as he would like. Whether it’s because of that he’s a nasty man, or it’s simply his character, we don’t know. But Maik has nothing to do with him. His drab life is turned upside down with the arrival of a new classmate, the immigrant Andrej (Anand Batbileg) from a distant Russian place, who is called ‘Tschick’ because of his unpronounceable last name. A tall lanky with weird hair and unsightly clothes who reek of liquor and shows up drunk – or at least tipsy – at school.

Not exactly the friend Maik had in mind, and initially he doesn’t like him. But when the summer holidays arrive, and Maik’s parents leave for an indefinite period (mother to the ‘beauty farm’, father on a trip with a very young female ‘colleague’), Tschick suddenly shows up at Maik’s door with a stolen light blue Lada. Instead of fretting that they are the only two classmates not invited to Tatiana’s birthday party, they decide to go for a drive. On the way they experience all kinds of things – they end up in a corn field and among the cows, they are treated to a meal in an idyllic village and they get into a fight with the local police officer. But above all, a special friendship develops, not only with each other, but also with another misfit, the homeless girl Isa (Mercedes Müller), who is on her way to her sister in the Czech Republic. Maik no longer cares about Tatiana for the entire holiday. Even when he and Tschick have an accident and are called to the juvenile court, he speaks of ‘the most beautiful summer ever’.

An aggressive brain tumor was discovered at Hernndorf in 2010; three years later he decided to outsmart his illness and took his own life. He can still give his agreement for the screenplay that Lars Hubrich made, but did not see the film adaptation of his youth novel premiere. None other than Fatih Akin, the multi-award-winning director of films such as ‘Gegen die Wand’ (2004) and ‘Auf die Anders Seite’ (2007) who knows how to deal with themes such as searching for your identity and developing (unusual ) has to deal with friendships, was attracted to take the director’s chair. The result is a warm, funny and entertaining film, which, thanks to its universal themes, will appeal to people of all ages. The acting is excellent, the locations beautiful and summery, the film has a nice tempo and a varied soundtrack (hilarious running gag is Richard Klaydermann’s cassette tape in the Lada!). Yet there is a critical note: where Akins films usually go in-depth, ‘Tschick’ unfortunately remains too much on the surface. The themes of loneliness and homosexuality are touched upon, but no more than that. Just like the adventures that Maik and Tschick experience, they remain innocent pinpricks, which are worked out neatly within the lines. It makes the film more accessible to a younger audience, but at the same time quite solid – typically German.