Grenzverkehr (2005)

After the accidental death of his best friend Ralf, 16-year-old Wolfgang, whom his friends call “Wong,” is deeply shaken. He also shares with his friends Hunter and Schilcher the frustration of being unable to score with girls in their quiet Lower Bavarian hometown. One evening, Hunter predicts that the three friends have no chance with the opposite sex as long as they have yet to have their “first time,” so they decide to visit a brothel in the Czech Republic. They tell their parents they are going camping at a nearby lake. In reality, they hide their mopeds in the woods, secretly get faster ones from Schilcher’s father’s motorcycle shop, and set off for the Czech border. Once in the Czech Republic, they come across Alicia, a young woman from Ukraine who is heavily pregnant, on the roadside. She had earlier tried unsuccessfully to enter Germany, hoping to move in with her boyfriend Markus, who, she tells the three boys, is supposedly already waiting for her. In turn, the boys let her believe they have come to the Czech Republic only for a quick shopping trip. In the first larger town, Alicia tries to persuade them to take her across the border into Germany on their way back. When they hesitate and cite her lack of a helmet as their reason, she promptly takes a helmet chained to a parked motorcycle, deftly picking the lock. But the three remain unwilling, visibly embarrassed. Alicia now realizes that the boys are planning to visit a brothel and leaves, disappointed and angry. While searching for a suitable establishment, the boys eventually end up at a rather run-down brothel outside town called the Temple of Love. Before going in, Hunter takes a dose of Viagra, briefly puzzling his two friends, but in the excitement it soon ceases to matter. Three prostitutes greet them warmly, and are also somewhat amused by the boys’ age and awkwardness. They offer alcohol to Hunter and Schilcher, while Wong is the first to go upstairs with one of the women. His extreme nervousness delays things between him and the prostitute for a while, but they eventually have sex. Wong is visibly disappointed and confused by the brief, businesslike encounter. Meanwhile, Hunter, who has reacted badly to the combination of Viagra and alcohol, has thrown up several times in the foyer. The pimp’s two henchmen therefore demand €500 in damages, which the boys cannot pay. The two thugs promptly keep the mopeds as collateral and send the three boys on foot back into town to withdraw cash from an ATM. But none of the bank cards they brought works. In this desperate situation, they run into Alicia again. They promise to take her to Germany if she helps them get the mopeds free, which are chained up at the Temple of Love. But the plan fails: all four are caught trying to pick the chain’s lock and are locked in an outbuilding of the brothel. Their already precarious situation gets even worse when the brothel owner sells both the mopeds and the boys’ clothes to three Indians who want to enter Germany undetected. Desperate, Schilcher devises a plan to escape: using gasoline and various other chemical ingredients he finds in the room, which appears to be used as a storage space for junk, he makes an explosive mixture to blow the window out of the wall. The blast does indeed tear a large hole, through which the four escape—but Alicia is caught by the pimp’s two henchmen and taken back to the brothel, while the boys flee into the adjoining woods. They argue over whether to walk back to Germany or rescue Alicia. During the argument, Hunter admits that he has been attracted to men for some time—which is why he took the Viagra. After going their separate ways briefly, the three make up and decide to get Alicia out of the brothel and take her with them to Germany. To do so, they put up a notice on the road sign pointing to the Temple of Love, promising free sexual services. When a large crowd of potential customers then floods the building, distracting the pimp and his two henchmen, the boys break in through the back door, get Alicia, and escape in a small van. The two thugs pursue them relentlessly in a small car until a river marking the Czech-German border blocks their way. Schilcher, at the wheel of the van, finally summons all his courage and drives through a ford to the other side, reaching safety at the very last moment. Meanwhile, Wong’s father, a police officer, has found the three friends’ mopeds hidden in the woods, which they left behind in their hometown. When the boys also become unreachable by phone, their parents begin to worry. To make matters worse, Wong’s father then picks up the three Indians, who are wearing the missing boys’ clothes and carrying their moped licenses. The stress of the escape has brought on Alicia’s labor. While the three boys are still discussing what to do, she gives birth to her baby in the back of the van, with Wong doing everything he can to help her. After the birth, she confesses to him that she had only a brief relationship with the German father of her child, and that she was just a fleeting affair to him. She does not even know whether Markus is his real name. On the drive back to the boys’ hometown, Wong, Alicia, and the newborn then happily embrace. When they arrive and are reunited with their worried parents, they confess both to visiting the brothel and to taking the mopeds from Schilcher’s father’s shop. Hunter also finds the courage to tell his father that he is gay. At the end, the three friends are seen pushing Alicia’s baby around town in a stroller, looking after it affectionately and attracting the girls’ attention for the first time.