FREISCHWIMMER

Rico Bartsch (Frederick Lau) is fifteen and an outsider at the Kafka Gymnasium: hard of hearing, unathletic, with a talent for drawing that interests no one there. In a swimming contest he loses to his rival Robert Greiner and fails his Freischwimmer certificate. When Robert dies after eating a poisoned pastry, suspicion falls on Rico. He finds support in his German teacher, Martin Wegner, and their bond of trust grows ever closer – until Rico notices that his teacher has strange habits and views. Andreas Kleinert tells, in “Freischwimmer” (Germany 2007), a coming-of-age story that is both ironic and meant in earnest.

What begins as a school story gradually tips into a psychological crime drama with several deaths and a surprising resolution; critics read the film as an allegorical parody of petit-bourgeois complacency. “Freischwimmer” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2007 in the Spezial Deutschland section.