Big cities have always served as a source of endless inspiration for artists, and filmmakers are no exception to the rule. Our imagination of New York has been forged by the movies of Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, of Paris by the Nouvelle Vague auteurs, and in the case of Vienna, The Third Man or Before Sunrise is just a matter of (generational) taste. The goal might be to make an ultimate, defining film for the city, but it is elusive, maybe even impossible. Berlin has served as a character rather than just a coulisse for Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire, Christian Petzold wrote the ode for it in Undine [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Christian Petzold
fiche film], while Sebastian Schipper portrayed it as a vibrant, yet potentially dangerous place in his one-take extravaganza Victoria [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Sebastian Schipper
fiche film]. The up-and-coming Sorina Gajewski tries to redefine the movie portrait of a city from the perspective of her own generation with Slackers. After the world premiere earlier this year at Max Ophüls Festival, it enjoyed its first international screening at Crossing Europe.

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While the original German title (Nulpen, meaning “idiots”) might be too harsh on the film’s protagonists, the international English one seems quite appropriate. It is summertime, school is out, and teenagers Ramona (a newcomer Bella Lochmann) and Nicola (slightly more experienced Pola Geiger) have nothing better to do than mischief hoping to provoke reaction from their environment. Their acting on impulses has a bit of destructive aura to it, and after one such incident, they take Ramona’s younger brother Noah (the adorable Rio Kirchner) in tow in order to, at least half-heartedly, try to repair the damage they caused. That sets them on a string of adventures where people, animals and objects get misplaced, lost and found.

Yes, they are proper slackers: or are they just two lost girls compared to whom the little Noah seems more mature in reasoning. Their devil-may-care attitude verging on arrogance is a facade that theoretically protects them from the world. But the two friends come from very different environments, which causes cracks in their seemingly firm friendship. Can it stand the test of time, not just the future that could steer them in different directions, but also the present? Maybe just for a day marked with climate protests, strange encounters and not always the wisest decisions?

Gajewski tries to capture the vibe of the real-life city, away from the landmarks and internationally recognised “cool” places. There is a bit of looseness of Richard Linklater’s Slacker in the DNA of Slackers, and there is a lot of a ballsy attitude in which the filmmaker, not unlike her characters, tries to mask certain insecurities. There are moments of gentleness as well, even as they serve as a brief recess from the characters’ attempts to get out of the trouble they usually brought upon themselves. The two young lead actresses embrace their characters and interact with each other and with the outer world with some palpable chemistry.

There are missteps, too. The hand-held camerawork by Hannes Schultze sometimes gets close to chaotic shakiness for no good reason, while the infusion of music of different genres draws Slackers close to the category of hipster cinema. Although the editor Rafaéllo Lupperger does his best to tighten things up, and largely succeeds, Slackers seems like an oversized short film or a string of those.

Let us make no mistake, it is a student film and it shows. But Slackers also demonstrates Gajewski’s bravery to make mistakes while searching for her voice.

Slackers is a German production by DFFB.