Two sixteen year old boys, Marcos and Johannes, spend their days racing, wrestling, hanging out, watching videos and playing hide-and-seek at nights.
The Whiz Kids (2001)
Freunde (original title)
Being only 21 minutes in length, it manages to achieve a level of intimacy,intensity and sensibility most full-feature films I’ve seen never reached. It is utterly unsentimental (rightly so) and pinpoints all the turmoil, conflicts and sexual tension of adolescence with devastating acuteness. The dialogues between the two main actors are sparse and spontaneous, seemed more improvised than anything else. The camera captures most of the film during such natural, undramatic moments, that the first sexual encounter has a magical and electrifying quality to it…actually gave me goose bumps. IMO this is the most effective way to portray a relationship that is at once so fragile and passionate. The ending rounds it all up with something you could call a “moral”…but it’s nothing as simple as that.
