Pixelschatten (2011)

Two years after graduating from high school, small-town blogger Paul, known as Pixel, realizes that his once-popular autobiographical posts are no longer reaching anyone, and that his friends are longing for a new environment. Unable to take charge of his own future and driven by a desire for attention, he provokes his best friends Dunia and Lutz and his girlfriend Suse so much with his posts that they grow increasingly distant from him. When he can find no other way to communicate with them, he decides to cut off all contact and disappear without a trace. The only message he leaves behind is a blog post containing an intimate video of himself and Suse. Weeks later, the local scandal over the video of Pixel and Suse has faded. Dunia, Lutz and Suse have grown further and further apart, and each copes in their own way with Pixel’s unexplained disappearance. One day, Dunia has had enough and uses Pixel’s now-silent blog to try to coax a sign of life out of him. The new posts attract fresh attention, as many former readers believe Pixel has returned. Dunia persuades Lutz, and later Suse as well, to write to Pixel through the blog and give their grief an outlet. Together, they accomplish what Pixel never managed to do: turn the blog into a life-affirming community project that brings young people from all over the surrounding area together. Overwhelmed by the response, the friends decide to bring the blog to an end with a proper party before they go their separate ways and Suse leaves for Oslo for a year. The “Pixelfest” is a great success; the blog is more successful than ever, and for the first time the friends feel they have managed to create something together. Only Pixel gives no sign of life.