Kleine Haie (1992)

Dishwasher Ingo Hermann has only been asked to deliver a chair that was left behind at the Folkwang University in Essen. After waiting for hours, he unintentionally ends up taking an entrance exam for the acting program there and impresses the admissions committee with his performance, without realizing it. Outside the acting school, he meets Johannes Scheffler, who dreams of an acting career but has once again been rejected after applying. Johannes stays at Ingo’s place for the night and witnesses Ingo’s girlfriend Margot moving out. Margot is unhappy with Ingo because he shows no ambition to develop beyond what she calls his “idiot jobs.” Because of the chair-return errand, Ingo fails to show up for work the next morning and gets fired. Now nothing is keeping him in Gelsenkirchen, so he accompanies Johannes to Munich, where Johannes plans to apply to the Otto Falckenberg School. Johannes and Ingo get separated while hitchhiking because the first driver who stops will only take one passenger. After several cigarettes, a heavily modified late-1970s Chevrolet Camaro stops and picks up Ingo. The driver who picked up Johannes tries to persuade him to engage in homosexual activities, so Johannes asks to be let out at the Spessart motorway service area. It is quiet there at night, and Johannes cannot get any further. At the service station, he meets the self-assured Ali, who is also hoping for an acting career and hitchhiking to Munich. A dubious four-man crew in a VW Golf I offers to take them to Munich for 200 marks per person. Both Johannes and Ali turn them down. Ali further provokes the Golf’s occupants, sparking a fight. At the same time, the Camaro arrives at the service station by chance, with Ulf “Bierchen” and Ingo inside, to buy more beer. Ulf and Ingo join the fight and drive off the Golf’s occupants. The four of them continue on to Munich with Ulf. While Ulf sleeps off his drunkenness, Ingo drives the Camaro the rest of the way. Along the way, Ingo imagines a fantasy story suited to the journey, which only the viewer can hear. As we hear in the opening scene, Ingo has a talent for writing such stories, but does not dare to do anything more with it. Once in Munich, the three “Little Sharks” get by with various jobs (and a few adventures), and eventually take the acting school entrance exam together. In Munich, the three meet Herta, who acts like a typically cheeky Berlin girl, but has considerable musical talent. At the Munich entrance exam, only Ali succeeds; shortly before the final round, Ingo withdraws his application after Margot tells him by phone that the school in Essen has accepted him because of his performance with the chair. Johannes, utterly dejected, has only one last chance left: the acting school in Berlin. On their final evening, the three friends go out for an elegant dinner together. Ali, whose full name is Albrecht Hagen Franke von Korweiler, suddenly turns out to be extremely wealthy. The next day, Johannes and Ingo hitchhike again. By chance, Herta passes by in her Opel Kadett C Caravan and takes Johannes with her to Berlin. Ingo is given a ride home by Ulf, who happens to be returning from Italy. After the credits, Ingo answers the questions left open: Johannes was accepted into the Berlin school and became a serious actor. Ali left the Munich acting school again and is now a commercial film producer there. Ingo himself is back in Gelsenkirchen. He did not pursue acting training, however, because he can make a good living from writing. He and Margot have married and have two little daughters; their godfather is “Bierchen.” Their third child is on the way. If it turns out to be a boy, and they name him after the godfather rather than Margot, he is to be called Ulf.