It's a Jungle Out There

Anna is seventeen and throws her first big birthday party while her parents are away. The night falls apart; the guests wreck the house and break her father's favourite record. When the parents come home the place looks like a battlefield. Anna runs off to Munich with Simon, who is besotted with her. While the two of them discover the city's nightlife, two sets of parents set off behind them to look for them. Hans-Christian Schmid's first feature tells adolescence not as a revolt against the family but as two generations getting lost at the same time: the children in the city, the parents in the memory of their own youth. It moves easily between comedy and drama. Franka Potente made her screen debut here; a few years later she would become known for Run Lola Run. Munich at night stands there like a second character.