Kids Run (2020)

Andi Javanovich is in his mid-twenties, and the young, hot-tempered man from a disadvantaged background is already the father of three children. Two of them, his son Ronny and daughter Nikki, live with him rather than with their mother, Isa. Fiou, his infant daughter, lives with Andi’s ex-girlfriend Sonja and her new, fairly well-off boyfriend, Mike, though she regularly stays with Andi too. The constant responsibility for his children and his attempt to win Sonja back so they can start a family together define his life. Andi takes whatever work he can find, sometimes at a demolition company and sometimes sorting scrap metal. When he can no longer pay his rent and faces eviction, he has no idea how to get the money. Isa has nothing herself, and Sonja reluctantly lends him the rent money. Andi believes he can get Sonja back if he has as much money as her boyfriend Mike for the first time. When he loses his job and Sonja demands back, at short notice, the several thousand euros he has already used to pay the rent—and he fears she will no longer let him see Fiou—he sees only one way to get the money. He plans to enter an amateur boxing tournament. Many of his workmates and boxing buddies don’t think he can do it. Mikael in particular worries about Andi’s children and reminds him of the serious injuries he suffered in his previous defeats. But Andi wants to win this time for his children’s sake, and takes his training very seriously. Andi now trains during the day and cleans at night at the Cassiopeia nightclub, where he later works as a security guard. But even there, he gets into conflicts with his colleagues. When Sonja once again tries to bail him out, she loses her new job in the food service area of a drive-in cinema. She doesn’t want him to keep ruining her life, and tells him that she is going to marry Mike and move away with him. In the days leading up to the fights, Andi discovers that Isa, with whom he leaves the two older children in an emergency, can’t be relied on. She does not have as loving a relationship with them as their father does and even locks them inside her apartment for several days. Andi wins his first bout in the preliminary round of the prizefight, with Mikael acting as his trainer and Ronny and Nikki in the audience. But in his fight against the Albanian Fatih at the “Amateur Fight Nights,” Andi is completely outmatched. The children can hardly bear watching their father being beaten up. After he is knocked down, Andi leaves the ring, gathers up his children, takes Fiou from Mike’s car, and together they board the next long-distance bus. Unable to answer his children’s questions about what they should do next or where they should go, Andi goes to see Sonja.