Der Fleck (Skill issue)

After dropping out of sports class, seventeen-year-old Simon joins a group of youngsters by a river in the woods. Until the languid afternoon by the water starts to bore the somewhat awkward teenager and he slips away again. This time with the mysterious Marie. Together they wander along timeless shores. Director Willy Hans inspired Der Fleck on his childhood in a South German boarding school and the romantic notion of wandering. Longing to belong or choosing freedom in a kind of drama without any drama, as Hans describes it. His feature-length debut avoids well-trodden paths, musing along the way about thousand-year-old soup in China. Canned on 16mm film, saturated colours and flecks of light gently oppose an undercurrent of loneliness. The enchanting attraction of the natural landscape earned a special mention at the Locarno film festival.