WACH (2018)

Two friends want to stay awake for as long as they can—without drugs. C. (Jana McKinnon) and Nike (Alli Neumann) are 17, but pass themselves off as 20. They want to get out. Out of a life with no prospects. They want to feel something. A pure experience. A heady journey through 86 sleepless hours begins. C. and Nike film the experiment, capturing everything on camera. But exhaustion forces them back to reality. An ending that is also the end of their youth. Nike’s father is never home. The small apartment in a social housing complex is the perfect place for their experiment. They buy supplies for several days, cover the windows, and hide all the clocks so they can lose all sense of time. But when Nike’s father unexpectedly shows up, C. and Nike are driven out. Out into the rain-soaked ghetto. They are attacked in the street. They have to get out of here. In the city, Nike loses the little money they have with them. The friends are on the verge of giving up. But they can’t go home. They want to stay awake. The cold of the night drives them to the city’s darker places. A strange, unsettling world where they have no business being. In a dark minimalist club, they meet Jesco (Dennis Mojen). He is a few years older and has a car. A road trip begins, confronting C. and Nike with their fears and dreams, putting their friendship to a severe test, and ultimately leading to a matter of life and death.