A fish and Nina’s inability to brake on their inline skates suddenly bring Jan (Tino Mewes) and Nina (Sophie Rogall) together. Jan is 16, shy and a loner. His passion is the underwater world he would love to immerse himself in to forget his illness and shake off his overprotective mother. Jan’s only confidante is his grandfather, a bizarre oddball who appreciates the adventures of life and is the only family member who hasn’t lost his sense of humor. Nina is different: she is cheeky, spontaneous and stands on her own two feet. Her mother has left for faraway Kenya, Nina cannot count on her father and her brother. Only her friend Angel, a mid-fifties girl who keeps her head above water by selling erotic toys, listens to her. But both have more in common than it seems at first glance. Together they break out of their everyday lives and enjoy their lives to the full. They seek their paradise and they know: It is dark, calm, wet and full of fish. To answer the burning question of whether fish really have sex, Nina and Jan spend the night secretly in the aquarium – with unexpected consequences. Their little paradise is threatened – by the confining world of adults, misunderstandings, uncertainties and a reality that can no longer be suppressed: Jan is infected with the HIV virus.
2001 | Cinema feature film | 103 min. | 35 mm
World premiere Max-Ophüls-Prize Saarbrücken 2002
Distribution Ottfilm, Berlin
Theatrical release 15 August 2002
Particularly valuable rating
Cast
Sophie Rogall
Tino Mewes
Annette Uhlen
Hans-Martin Stier
Ferdinand Dux
Angelika Milster
Jürgen Tonkel
Thomas Feist
Uwe Rohde
Ellen ten Damme
Suzanne Vogdt
Adrian Zwicker
Veit Stübner
Team
Script/Directing Almut Getto
Camera Andreas Höfer
Editing Ingo Ehrlich
Production Designer Peter Menne
Costume Sandra Fuhr, Ute Pfaffendorf
Sound Hubertus Müll
Re-recording Richard Borowski
Music Tom Deininger, Sten Servaes
Sound Design Kai Storck
Commissioning Editor Andrea Hanke, Claudia Simionescu
Producers Herbert Schwering, Christine Kiauk
PREISE
2003 German Film Award / Best Filmed Screenplay
2003 German Film Award / Sophie Rogall nominated Best Actress in a Leading Role
2002 Prize of the German Film Critics / Best Screenplay
2002 Schwerin Film Festival / Audience Award
2002 Max-Ophüls-Festival / Film Award of the Saarld. Ministerprasidenten
