Paul (Jonas Holdenrieder) lives with his little brother Silas (Aurel Klug) and their parents in the nondescript housing estate of a grey provincial town, somewhere in Germany. Lonely and aimless, he roams the no-man's-land of the forests, the hidden paths and the ruins. Bleakness reigns in the town, were it not for an anonymous stone-thrower who haunts the nights and causes car accidents.
Paul takes an interest in strange things: abandoned buildings, whispered private conversations and the bags left behind by unsuspecting people. He seems nice and polite – and is otherwise a young man without qualities. In this opacity he offers those around him the perfect screen onto which to project their own longings: like his classmate Dala (Valerie Stoll), who falls in love with the quiet outsider who always watches her from the darkness of the rows while she acts in the theatre. Or his extroverted classmate Max (Max Schimmelpfennig), who believes he has finally found in Paul someone who takes him seriously. But one day the criminal police turn up in Paul's class. A boy who was new to the school has been found dead in the forest, beaten to death with a stone. The further the investigation goes, the darker the clouds gather. (Source: Max Ophüls Preis website)
The 42nd Max Ophüls Preis film festival - online from 17 to 24 January 2021 - further information at: https://ffmop.de
Director: Christian Schäfer
Production: Rabiatfilm GmbH
Casting: Dayanir & Hellwig Casting