Parkour (2009)

Richie is an athletic guy in his mid-twenties. He loves his job as a scaffolder, and he adores his attractive girlfriend, Hannah. He also shares a passion for parkour with his two best friends, Nonne and Paule. For Richie, parkour is both a way to unwind from his strenuous job and an opportunity to take on challenges by overcoming various urban obstacles in the most direct way possible and as quickly as he can. Hannah, on the other hand, is currently completing her high-school diploma and is in the middle of the stressful preparation for her final mathematics exam. She is desperate, feeling as though she understands nothing at all. Because Richie wants to stop Hannah from studying with Stefan, a classmate from her evening school who has a crush on her, he offers to ask his buddy Nonne instead. Nonne used to be a whiz at math back in school. Richie has worries of his own, though. His most recent client still owes him wages, which Richie has already paid out to his two coworkers, Frankie and Janko. Frankie is the very picture of loyalty and is not easily rattled. Janko is Austrian and has a problem with women, especially those who have cheated on him. He warns Richie to keep an eye on Hannah when she gets tutoring from Nonne, since, in the end, all women are the same. Although Richie does not put much stock in Janko’s talk, he still cannot stop thinking about it. When he drops Hannah off at school, Richie asks her what will happen once she has her diploma. He cannot leave town: there is too much work, and he, Frankie, and Janko make a well-coordinated team that works successfully together. Hannah puts him off, saying they should wait until her final exam is over and then they can decide what to do. Richie remains unsettled, however, and increasingly loses his balance. When he sees Hannah being harassed on the dance floor at a nightclub, he sees red. After secretly beating up the pushy clubgoer in the restroom, Richie flees across the rooftops with Nonne and Paule. At least Hannah’s tutoring sessions with Nonne seem to be going well. But Richie’s pride at having helped Hannah increasingly mingles with his fear that she might leave him after graduating to study in another city. He also begins to feel jealous of Nonne, who now spends a lot of time studying with Hannah. Meanwhile, Richie has even bigger problems. The money promised for his last job cannot be paid because the client has become insolvent. Richie threatens and insults the debtor—another mistake. Back at the construction site, Janko gets on Richie’s nerves again with stories about his unfaithful ex-girlfriends. When Richie is supposed to hold Janko on the scaffolding, he loses control and lets him fall. Richie himself is horrified, and Frankie is furious. When the police arrive at the construction site after Janko’s serious fall, Richie tells them it was a workplace accident. But both Frankie and Janko’s girlfriend, Sylvie, quickly begin to doubt Richie’s version of events. The police also open an investigation, and the noose around Richie’s neck tightens. Hannah, too, slowly realizes that something is wrong with Richie, and is disturbed and stunned by his unpredictable behavior and uncontrolled jealous outbursts. Richie’s world comes increasingly apart at the seams and seems to be collapsing around him. Like someone trapped in a never-ending nightmare, he races from one uncontrollable situation to the next, and it seems as if everyone and everything has turned against him. Suddenly, Janko reappears, still badly marked by his accident. He follows Richie around and keeps asking him exactly how he fell from the scaffolding. Finally, events spiral out of control when Richie turns up at the nightclub again and is recognized as the assailant. After a chase with the bouncers and the police, during which a police car hits Richie, he is taken to the police station. There, a serious misunderstanding occurs, in the course of which he admits to having let his coworker Janko fall from the scaffolding. Richie is held in police custody for 24 hours and reacts to the situation in a confused, self-destructive way. After his release, Richie arranges to meet Janko again. Janko wants to do him a favor and find out what is going on behind Richie’s back between Hannah, Nonne, and Paule. After hearing Janko’s shocking account, Richie finally loses his nerve. Later, he receives psychiatric treatment at a state hospital, where a possible diagnosis of a schizophrenic episode is considered. Janko is in the same hospital. A nurse also makes it clear that Janko has not woken up since his workplace accident, meaning Richie had only imagined their conversations. Richie then begins outpatient treatment accompanied by medication. However, he deliberately stops taking it and, physically weakened, attempts a life-threatening parkour jump. The film leaves it open whether he makes the jump or is killed in a fatal accident while leaping across the chasm between buildings.