Netto (2005)

Fifteen-year-old Sebastian has lived with his mother, Angelika, since his parents’ divorce. When she becomes pregnant by her boyfriend, Bernd, and moves in with him, Sebastian goes to live with his father, Marcel. Marcel is unemployed, but has rented a small shop space in an apartment building in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, and is trying to make a living selling alarm systems. His great dream is to become a bodyguard. At first, he does not want to take Sebastian in, but the two gradually get to know and appreciate each other again. Sebastian tries to bring some order back into his father’s life. He helps him write job applications and tries to get him to stop constantly complaining about everything. Meanwhile, Sebastian meets Nora, who is delivering advertising flyers. He starts seeing her, and they become a couple. But when he wants to introduce her to his father, Marcel is bent over the toilet after drinking too much beer. The father-and-son relationship, which had been developing well, seems to be in danger, but the two reconcile after Sebastian takes a short trip to visit his mother and her boyfriend and realizes that they are not right for him. The film is interspersed with music by Peter Tschernig, once known in East Germany as the “Johnny Cash of the East.” The artist also makes a brief (silent) cameo at the end.