The story
A somewhat impressionist, at times even slightly surreal miniature about a student (Werner Stocker in a splendid performance) who, out of financial difficulties, starts out as pool attendant at an open air swimming pool in Berlin's district of Neukölln. Escaping from his unpleasant landlord and his lover Patrizia (a very young Martina Gedeck), he soon starts to live at the baths, and as swimmers disappear and the baths are closed for the winter, he turns the grounds into his own, perfect refuge from civilisation and social pressure, becoming increasingly detached from reality. What may sound like an annoyingly gimmicky premise is executed here playfully, yet with admirable simplicity and a subtle, unpretentious poetic sensibility that one would wish for more often in contemporary German cinema.
Cast & crew
Martina GedeckPatrizia
Dominik BenderBudenbesitzer
Helmut KraussVermieterExplore the crew
- Director
- Eva Hiller
- Original Music Composer
- Matthias Raue
- Director of Photography
- Thomas Mauch
- Writer
- Eva Hiller
- Editor
- Dörte Völz-Mammarella
- Director of Photography
- Axel Block
- Director of Photography
- Eberhard Geick