Hendrik Bolz was born in 1988, shortly before German reunification, and grew up in a world that, even though it hasn’t been called “East Germany” for years, has very little to do with what passes for normality in the West. You wouldn’t know it was the same country if it weren’t for the afternoon program on the TV in the background.
While more and more adults in the prefab buildings of Bolz' hometown are giving up trying to find their place in the new system, Hendrik and his friends accept the challenge: They find ways out of boredom and escape routes to avoid taking a beating. The front lines of the “baseball bat years,” marked by rightwing violence, slowly disintegrate, sneakers take the place of combat boots, but the options are still the same: eat or be eaten. In kindergarten, at school, and at the soccer club, they learned that big boys don’t cry and that the smarter kid only gives in until he’s the fool. Now it’s a question of becoming tougher so that, when push comes to shove, they can break the other guy’s nose – and of becoming emotionally blunter, so that you don’t even hesitate. They find the means – weight training, drugs, rap. And soon there are new “little ones” who have to hide.
