Immer nie am Meer (2007)
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Directors
Cast
Christoph Grissemann, Dirk Stermann, Heinz Strunk, Philip Bialkowski, Eva Maria Neubauer, Gabriele Heckel, Silke Jandl, Bernhard Majcen, Marion Dimali, Christopher Schärf, Alexander Rieder, Markus Schleinzer
After a nighttime crash leaves three men trapped in an armored car, the boy who finds them is more curious about their confinement than their rescue.
The story
After a celebration for his wife’s new book and wine shop, separated history professor Baisch sets off home with his heavily intoxicated brother-in-law, Anzengruber. They pick up Schwanenmeister, a one-man entertainer whose car has crashed after an encounter with a woman out walking. Later, in the woods at night, their own car leaves the road as they swerve to avoid the same woman, coming to rest wedged between two trees. Its window mechanisms and sunroof are defective, and the panes cannot be smashed, leaving the three men trapped without a working horn or mobile phones. When a boy named Toni discovers them, their hopes rise—but he is more interested in studying the effects of their confinement than in getting them rescued.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After the opening celebration for his wife’s new book and wine shop, Baisch, a history professor who is separated from her, sets off for home with his heavily intoxicated brother-in-law, Anzengruber. On a country road, they pick up Schwanenmeister, a one-man entertainer whose car has crashed after an encounter with a woman out walking. At night in the woods, their car also leaves the road after they encounter that same woman and have to swerve. It comes to a stop farther down the slope, wedged between two trees. The vehicle is a decommissioned official car belonging to former Austrian Federal President Kurt Waldheim and is fitted with armored glass. Because the window mechanisms and sunroof are defective and the windows cannot be smashed, the three men are trapped inside and have to wait for outside help. The horn does not work, nor do their mobile phones. Their only provisions are a box of sparkling wine, a bowl of herring salad, and a packet of cookies. Their growing desperation, interspersed with bursts of laughter, leads to conversations inside the car that are at times absurd and at times profound. When a boy named Toni discovers the car, the three occupants regain hope. But, driven by a pronounced youthful urge to investigate, Toni is more interested in empirically studying the effects of their confinement. Having learned from observing laboratory rats, he subjects his test subjects to ever-new stressors. Baisch manages to catch the boy with a loop. He hopes that the boy will be reported missing and searched for, which would also lead to the rescue of the three trapped men. Toni manages to escape, however, and is able to hold up the search party. He then has to leave the holiday camp where he had been staying, and tells no one about the crashed car. At the end of the film, a white rat—the laboratory rat that escaped during Toni’s experiments—is shown touching a loose electrical connection in a ventilation shaft in the vehicle, causing the sunroof to open. Before the men, sitting lethargically in the car, can realize what has happened and react, the roof closes again.
Genres
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