Der Kick

Four years ago, a horrific drama took place in the German village of Potzlow, in the Uckermark district. Two adolescent brothers with far-right sympathies drunkenly punched and kicked a 16-year-old friend of theirs to death. Was it because he stuttered and dressed differently, or because he - under duress - admitted to being Jewish? Or was it just for kicks? Despite witnesses with strong suspicious about what had happened, it took five months before the murder was uncovered. is the realistic dramatisation of the trial that followed, and it is sober and inescapable. Dressed in black, two actors play all 20 roles in an empty factory building: the parents of the killers and their victim, the killers themselves, ministers, teachers and other fellow villagers. The powerful monologues are based on transcripts of hearings and months of research. There are no props or sets required to call up images of the situation surrounding the murder. The subtle changes in attitude and intonation of the actors Susanne-Marie Wrage and Markus Lerch, the clear direction, camerawork, lighting and editing ensure that the audience will have no problem filling in the gaps. is a disconcerting document of a lost generation of youth in former East Germany.