Play (2019)

For 17-year-old Jennifer Reitwein, sports are as much a part of her teenage life as gaming. Jennifer has only just moved from Wuppertal to Munich with her parents, Frank and Ariane, and is unable to fit in with her new classmates. She feels uncomfortable and alone. Hooked on the new virtual-reality game Avalonia, gaming gradually becomes the center of her life. Jennifer neglects her schoolwork and family responsibilities, especially after she meets the wood elf Tyriel in the game as her own wood elf character, Sindruin. In real life, Tyriel is 18-year-old Pierre, a student at her new school. Jennifer’s mother initially tries to control how much time her daughter spends at the computer by setting a password. But all her parents’ warnings and bans fall on deaf ears: Jennifer stubbornly defends every second she spends playing and deceives them. When that fails, her parents resort to harsher measures and take away her computer and phone. Jennifer nevertheless finds a way to keep immersing herself, now in secret, in the fantasy game world she longs for above all else; it seems to be the only place where she is happy. But the balance between the real and digital worlds increasingly falls apart for everyone involved. Eventually, when she is supposed to start therapy, Jennifer runs away from her parents to a secluded holiday cottage in the woods and reaches the highest level in the game. After a week, her father discovers where she is with Pierre’s help and deletes her character just before she can kill the game’s final boss. Jennifer is utterly horrified and helplessly bewildered. When her father reaches the cottage in the woods and tries to reassure his daughter through the locked door, Jennifer suddenly hears the voice of the hostile dragon from the game again, as she has before, and flees into the woods. Her father follows her, but she mistakes him for the game’s final boss and seriously wounds him with a knife. Only when her mother arrives in the woods does Jennifer realize what she has done. She drops the bloody knife from her hand and pleads, “Help me!” Interspersed throughout the film are scenes in which Jennifer is receiving psychiatric treatment. Her therapist tells her that both her parents come to see her every day and that her father has forgiven her.