Kotsch (2006)

In the not very lively Styrian small town of Fohnsdorf, in 1999, four friends—Alf, Chris, Boris, and Dalli—live by an unspoken agreement not to want any problems. The men, all in their late twenties, have known one another since early childhood. They are adept at turning a blind eye to reality and to the things they urgently ought to change, and would rather come up with various strategies for killing time. Their motto is that, in principle, it doesn’t matter where you are, as long as you’re there with the right people. The young Styrians lead rather dull lives, from which they repeatedly try—though half-heartedly—to escape, but deep down they don’t really want to leave home. Austria is governed by a grand coalition; in Fohnsdorf, progress did away with the former mine and brought a large shopping center in its place. Unemployment is high, and many former residents have since left town. Alf, who says he is living with his mother again “temporarily,” helps out from time to time at the drugstore where she is the branch manager. He left home for a short time to study, but dropped out. Chris, the intellectual of the group, works at the tobacco shop belonging to old Mrs. Rauter. He is bitter and cynical, and in weak moments still pines for the artistic career he once aspired to. Boris, meanwhile, works as a department-store detective, but loses his job—a loss that is his own fault. He lives with his girlfriend, Gitti, and their child, Kevin. He is dissatisfied, but cannot bring himself to change his situation, nor to live up to his responsibilities toward Gitti and their child. It is fitting, then, that he is having an affair with Erni, a waitress at his regular bar. He dreams of a great escape, but also of a life of bourgeois domestic bliss. Dalli, the fourth member of the group, is a somewhat ponderous type and is therefore on his boss’s list of employees to get rid of. He went straight from compulsory school to the assembly line. Of the four friends, he is the one who is more tolerated than accepted. His rambling thoughts about sports and the world tend to annoy the other three. The friends keep returning to “Charly’s Checkpoint,” where they kill time over beer and shallow jokes and, now and then at their regulars’ table, still dream of great deeds. But their rituals are wearing thin, and their sexual fantasies remain unfulfilled. Then, during a big class reunion, everything suddenly changes. Alf falls in love, but fails when it matters. He is the first of the four to realize that something has to change, and in doing so shakes the fragile structure of the foursome’s friendship, which is programmed to look the other way. Chris admits to himself that he is jealous of Boris, partly because he is in love with Erni himself, and partly because Alf, who had always looked up to him, is now slipping further away under Boris’s influence. Thoughtless actions follow, but once again the four manage to keep up appearances. That is, until Alf finally takes the initiative and breaks up the group by leaving Fohnsdorf.