Skill Issue

A summer day. Hot, even humid. Otherwise, it‘s just like always. Just before gym class at a nameless boarding school in a nameless region in a nameless South-Germany. But 17-year-old SIMON stays in the boys‘ locker room. He doesn‘t change his clothes. He does not follow the others into the gym. An impulse, short, spontaneous and invisible. That‘s all it is. And Simon turns around and walks out in the direction of the train station. Simon thinks of nothing. Actually, he‘s not thinking about home either, where he‘s going now. Just because he has to go somewhere. To the single-family housing estate of a saturated middle class. To the bored cat.

When he arrives, he happens to meet his former classmate, Enes, who is on his way to the riverbank to go swimming with some friends. And Enes persuades Simon to come along. Between lethargically floating air mattresses, ignorant silence or even half-hearted attempts at contact, Simon soon regrets his decision. Only when MARIE shows up, Simons dull afternoon seems to take a turn after all. An unexpected incident catapults the two into the middle of the overgrown river valley. A natural in-between realm, with its own space and time coordinates, with unknown options and disturbing noise. In a game of artificial delays and awkward approaches, Simon and Marie feel their way towards each other.

But even as they sit close to each other in the back seat of a car later, their approach remains hesitant and shy. It‘s still hot, even humid - existentialism in the province.

(https://www.fuenferfilm.de/der-fleck)