Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark. (2014)

mini|upright|The Sunflower House in 2006. Rostock-Lichtenhagen, the morning of August 24, 1992: Because the Central Reception Center for Asylum Seekers in Rostock (ZASt) is overcrowded, Sinti and Roma are camping outside the building. After right-wing extremist riots in the preceding days, the apartment-block complex resembles a battlefield. Bored, a group of German teenagers hang around in a minibus. They include Sandro, the group’s leader; the reckless Robbie; and Stefan, the son of Martin, a local Social Democratic politician. When a patrol car drives by, tensions between the teenagers and the police become clear. Martin, Stefan’s father, announces on television his decision not to evacuate the asylum seekers, despite the threat from local residents. A little later, he has to watch as his superior nevertheless orders the Sinti and Roma evacuated for safety reasons. Further protests by local residents are announced for that evening, since numerous Vietnamese people are still in the building. Knowing that Stefan is connected to Robbie, Martin worries about his son, especially because he cannot reach him. Meanwhile, Sandro, Robbie, Stefan, and the others are driving around in Sandro’s car. Robbie provokes Sandro by turning off his neo-Nazi music. Sandro then drags Robbie several meters into the woods and nearly strangles him to death. Afterward, the group heads to the Baltic Sea beach. There, Tabor amuses himself by drawing a swastika on the forehead of his sleeping friend Goldhahn with sunscreen. Robbie had earlier mocked Goldhahn as a Jew because of his name; the swastika remains visible from then on because of the sunburn. Meanwhile, Stefan goes swimming with Jennie, who kisses him. That evening, Sandro, Robbie, Stefan, and the others join the local residents’ protests outside the “Sunflower House,” as the asylum seekers’ hostel is also known because of its wall mural. The police protect the building, standing between it and the protesters. Martin, meanwhile, tries to wait out the riots at home. Before long, however, he starts searching Stefan’s room for possible clues to his whereabouts. Finding nothing and suspecting Stefan is at the “Sunflower House,” he goes there. By the time he arrives, the police have withdrawn from in front of the angry mob. The protests escalate when Stefan throws the first Molotov cocktail through a window. Soon afterward, the building is stormed with the aim of lynching the asylum seekers. In sheer terror, Lien, a Vietnamese woman, tries to get to safety with her relatives on one of the upper floors. At the last minute, Lien manages to bring her brother, who had been left behind downstairs, up with her. Finding no asylum seekers on the lower floors, Robbie and Stefan ransack one of the apartments and set it on fire. Outside the building, the furious crowd chants, “Germany for the Germans! Foreigners out!” Martin is among them, but his counter-protest has no chance. Suddenly, he sees his son standing on a balcony railing, making gestures that further incite the crowd. By now, the police have returned to the “Sunflower House” and are gradually regaining control of the situation. The next morning, Lien wakes up with the other Vietnamese people in a makeshift infirmary. When she steps out onto the street, a child throws a stone at her.