Crazy (2000)

Sixteen-year-old Benjamin, whom everyone calls Benni, is sent by his parents to Schloss Neuseelen boarding school for the last four months of the school year. For the boy, who is paralyzed on one side, this is not his first change of school, especially because of his poor grades in mathematics. Because of his disability, Benni was always an outsider at his previous schools, unable to make friends and never having had a girlfriend. At Schloss Neuseelen, he shares a room with Janosch, who is more interested in girls and having fun than in school. After some initial difficulties, Benni befriends Janosch and the group consisting of Felix, Kugli, Florian, and Troy, and regularly spends his free time with them—they play soccer, swim in the lake, and even sneak into a strip club once. Benni soon falls in love with his classmate Malen, but he knows that Janosch has feelings for her too. Malen, in turn, likes them both for their different personalities: Janosch is superficial but fun; Benni is sensitive but more boring. Despite private tutoring from his teacher, Benni’s poor grade in mathematics does not improve. Meanwhile, his parents’ marriage falls apart when his father begins an affair with a 22-year-old intern. Near the end of the school year, at a party in one of the boarding school’s rooms, both boys try to win Malen over once and for all. Just as Benni is about to confess his love to her, Janosch pulls her away and seems to succeed with his bold approach. The two boys argue, and Janosch tells Benni that Malen is only interested in him out of pity, not because she loves him. Deeply hurt, Benni leaves the room and encounters Malen’s friend Marie in the empty hallway. She is bitterly disappointed because her boyfriend has just left her too. In one of the bathrooms, they become physically intimate, and Benni finally has sex for the first time—with Marie. The next morning, Benni meets Janosch by the lake and apologizes for his behavior at the party. Janosch also admits that he was at fault, and they make up. Janosch is surprised that Benni did not enjoy having sex with Marie at all; it all happened much too quickly for him. At the end of the school year, a summer party is held, where Malen introduces Benni and Janosch to her boyfriend, a university student neither of them knew about. For Benni, who has failed mathematics again, it is time to say goodbye to Schloss Neuseelen. As he sits in the kitchen with his boarding-school friends and swears he will never forget them, Malen, Marie, and another friend come over and sing “Für mich soll’s rote Rosen regnen” to Benni as a farewell gift.