Truly Dreadful Film

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Brilliant and touching

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

beautiful landscapes, inspired music, good acting. and a touching story about friendship and self definition. the great virtue of film is the fine delicacy in exploration of a sensitive subject . to define the small details, the powerful emotions, the need to understand, the refuse to accept and the air of competition. a teenage story presented in a manner who defines its specificity. because it is not exactly a gay film. it has the gift to propose a more large perspective about relations and gestures and feelings of an age who is only essential step to self definition as person. and that does it real beautiful. a form of grace. a form of geography of refuges. and the freedom . so, a beautiful film. about a story of summer. and about the nuances of friendship.

I'm sure I wouldn't give this movie all them stars if I saw it today. But I know exactly why I did back then.I don't remember what age I was exactly. What I do remember is the loneliness of the closet. I remember changing channel as my older brother went into the living room for a minute. I remember living in shame. I remember quivering as I watched Tobi struggling and finally come out. I think I cried.I'm not sure it was the first gay-themed movie I watched but it definitely wasn't the only one that had this tremendous effect on me ( The two first ones that pop into my head are Brokeback Mountain & Shelter, bot leaving me weeping a while after the end). I could go on with movies that got me feeling so sad yet so full of hope as I was. Or about the ones that I saw or re-watched more recently - as I continue to grow older and more confident with my gayness - that got me thinking and feeling joyful all the while being less normative than a whole of coming-out/coming-of-age gay/bi-themed movies. Oh; that could be a good movie list "Non-normative movies and shows for sad gay kids"! I'll get to it soon.

Being German I really appreciate the authenticity of the movie. Given the fact that director Marco Kreuzpaintner was in his late 20s when he wrote the script and that it was nearly autobiographical, the story takes place in the early 1990s when he was 17-18 years old, and everything from the worn 1970s bus they use for their journey in the beginning to the lack of cell-phones (no way for a teenager to hide in the forest nowadays - just call him and the ringing will tell you which tree he sits on ;) !!) exactly fits into this period of time. It was also the early 1990 when more and more exclusively gay-lesbian sports-clubs occurred in the bigger cities over here (for soccer, scuba-diving, rowing, etc.), and they almost always use some kind of a pun for their names("Vorspiel" (foreplay), "Gaysha" (Karate)), to name a few), just like Queerschlag did, which exists in reality to this very day. On that background, my reception of the movie is that it is more about Tobi's love for Achim than about his coming out. Tobi has fallen in love with his best friend, and that is something that is happening to young gays all the time. It is a very painful process when you have to realize that your mate, who shared his time and feelings with you for years and years, other than yourself will not be able to turn that friendship into love and sexual tenderness. Tobi's coming out at the end is only the result of the fact that he learned that Achim will never be able to love him the way he does and that he has to accept this. So after all this movie is both about accepting heterosexual and homosexual love. By the way, as some of the posters here misunderstood, the "lake" were the story takes place is in fact a 100+ years old reservoir (thats why you see the sandy banks in summer), and it is not in Bavaria, but in an area called "Bergisches Land" a few hundred miles north of Bavaria (if you want to find it in Google Earth, search for "Wipperfürth").

I started off thinking this was stupid but it turned out to be enjoyable, worthwhile and above all, relevant to any gay person who struggled, which is uh I guess about 99% of us. It had the usual appeals and this and that but regardless of what you think of the outcome it was true to form and a little more optimistic than some similar British movie. I can't say the name but that's OK you probably know what I'm talking about (apologies to Hillary Clinton). No really it was an awesome movie I'm just running on and on because im-db must require a minimum amount of text- duh- and they will freaking kill your account if you deviate- and my gosh, isn't that what this movie is about- deviation??? It's been a year or so since I watched a movie with subtitles. This is one, but it was cool. And the video is great, almost HD. So screw you IMDb I said what I needed to say despite your horney assed requirements (or uh was it because of them??) ;-)