Die Perlmutterfarbe (2009)

Bavaria, early 1930s: Thirteen-year-old Alexander attends a Realschule with his best friend, “Mole,” and his crush, Lotte. During a school art competition, Mole invents what is known as “mother-of-pearl paint.” Apparently made from simple household ingredients, the paint gives paper an unnatural yet fascinating sheen, capturing the interest of the entire class. By chance, the little bottle of paint ends up in Alexander’s schoolbag. When he spills all of it at home, making it irretrievably lost, his life falls apart. At school, his classmates try to find the thief, and suspicion quickly falls on the parallel class. Afraid and lacking the courage to tell the truth, Alexander goes along with the crowd and resorts to lies. He is also shielded and blackmailed by Gruber, a new classmate who is older and bigger than everyone else and who knows the real culprit thanks to his sharp powers of observation. Gruber uses his hold over Alexander for his own purposes. Clever and manipulative, he puts himself at the head of a movement against the parallel class, launches a smear campaign, and forms the tightly organized youth gang “ELDSA” (short for “Long live the proud A.”). Gruber himself is the gang’s leader. The hostility between the two parallel classes grows more intense and even leads to violence. Alexander becomes ever more entangled in his lies and increasingly distances himself from Mole and his friends, who oppose “ELDSA.” When tensions reach their peak, the art competition’s awards ceremony takes place. To everyone’s surprise, Alexander wins. He skillfully uses his speech of thanks in front of parents, teachers, and classmates to come clean. He declines the prize, admits his lies in front of everyone, and calls for peace among the students. The audience appreciates his honesty. When Mole is offered the prize instead, he declines it too. He admits that he did not actually invent the paint himself, but got it from the bookseller.