If the world belongs to us - DVD

Film: Life in an East German small town is anything but easy for sixteen-year-old Richy (Vincent Krüger). He is regularly bullied at school and even his little brother shows him no respect. When he meets the inscrutable Marco (Christian Blümel), he immediately feels attracted to his kind. When Marco breaks with his old clique, Richy sees his opportunity: he brings Marco together with Tim (Willi Gerk), who has moved here from the West, and after initial difficulties the threesome forms a new clique, held together by their common fascination for Satanism. More and more the boys get into the idea of being chosen by Satan for higher tasks. Richy in particular draws enormous self-confidence from this, which eventually brings him together with Nicole (Ceci Schmitz-Chu), a girl from Marco's old clique - although he has to hide this from his new friends. But of course this can't go well for long.

Wenn die Welt uns gehört (When the World Belongs to Us) is released in the Junges Deutsches Kino series, which presents challenging films from Germany that stand out from the crowd either thematically or in terms of their style. That is definitely the case with this production. It is true that the film has a certain TV character. But the oppressively authentic atmosphere, which is built up by the two directors Antje Kruska and Judith Keil, and the complete lack of striking or too stilted moments make the drama a fascinating as well as frightening film experience.

However, the story is told very calmly and slowly. The viewer is drawn into the action only slowly, but all the more intensely for it, due to the dramaturgy that never seems forced. Great praise is also due to the young main actors, who credibly convey why the three boys lose themselves in the dark world of Satanism. Anger, frustration, fear, disappointment, all this is palpable in the restrained acting of the actors and the sober visual language.

Wenn die Welt uns gehört may not be great cinema, but it is an intense and, in the simplicity of its staging, extremely oppressive youth drama - and at the same time good proof that even a small television play can have a very big impact. For friends of the sophisticated German drama is therefore also: absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The technical realization is well done, but is overall not above TV level. The picture is largely clean, the overall sharpness suffers here and there from the not always perfectly matched contrasts. The audio remains largely decent and is dominated by the dialogue and score. Neat!

Extras: Bonus material has the DVD unfortunately None to offer.

F Conclusion: When the world is ours is a quiet, but just thereby extremely intense youth drama that can score with convincing actors and an oppressive story. Technically, the DVD is on a good level, but bonus material is scarce. Nevertheless, there is here for all lovers of the more demanding German film a clear: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp