Gigantic

The last night of three friends in Hamburg. Floyd leaves in a few days to work on a ship; Ricco and Walter do not want to accept it. The three roam the city, play table football, fight, and do everything for the last time until morning. Sebastian Schipper's first film. Frank Giering plays Floyd, Florian Lukas plays Ricco, Antoine Monot Jr plays Walter. Schipper came from acting, having appeared in Run Lola Run, and this came out of X Filme, the company Tom Tykwer was part of. It belongs to the fast, music-driven, youth-centred vein of late nineties German cinema. There is almost no plot, and that is not a lack: the subject is the moment a friendship ends, the separation nobody says out loud. The scenes around the table football are the heart of it; the rhythm between the three actors is close to improvisation. It became a cult item in Germany and was claimed as that generation's film. Who it is for: viewers who like films about friendship and farewell. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for a story; the film is one night.