Courant alternatif

This film is the winner of the Max-Ophuls-Prize 2005. I watched this movie because of the very funny film-poster that hung at my local independent-cinema. The story: in the mid-80ies, a woman and her seventeen-years-old son move to an ecologist-hippie community in a small village in Schleswig-Holstein. The community is part of a protest movement against the nuclear power station near the village. The mother immediately likes the life in the green community. The son doesn't, but he makes friends with the village-rocker and the beautiful daughter of the mayor. So much for the plot. There isn't much plot. This film is more about characters and atmosphere. Great actors: Peter Lohmeyer with long and dirty hair as Peter the chief of the community, Nina Petri as Gesine (can still make nude scenes with 42 without being ridiculous!), Jens Munchow as the sympathetic, funny but idiotic Rakete, Gabriela Maria Schmeide as the over-motivated mother who does all the housework of the community... and of course Franz Dinda, who gives a fantastic characterization of the shy and disorientated Niels. Super atmosphere: the absolutely boring village, the chaotic living of the greens. Although the movie shows the ridiculous and bizarre sides of the hardcore-ecologists, it always has a certain tenderness for them. And now, not to forget: "Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb" is a very funny movie: the scream-therapy-sequence, the dinner with "warm bread", the "Gandhi-has-said"-line, the gun-shooting with Rakete etc., etc.. If you have the possibility, go watch this movie. Possibly THE German movie of 2005.