I am an academic and writer living in Melbourne. I love to travel and I also love writing about all the things Melbourne, regional Victoria and other parts of Australia have to offer.
Two very different brothers reunite and start on a special journey; a road trip on their motorbikes, which they planned and imagined in their childhood.
Meeting at their father's funeral, after 30 years of not seeing each other, Georg and Christian realise just how different their worlds are. Georg, the son who stayed behind in the small Black Forest town in Germany, and Christian, the always stressed successful workaholic, the two don't have much in common except their memories of childhood. And childhood is where their plan for a trip from the south of Germany to the Baltic Sea really started.
A result of an evening fuelled by too much beer and schnapps, the two brothers make the spontaneous decision to follow their childhood plan; get out their old mopeds and embark on a long and slow journey, at 25 kilometres per hour.
Following the guidelines and tasks they set themselves 30 years ago, the journey provides some laughs, tense moments and more importantly, a chance to sort out their long-held grudges and issues that have never been addressed. As they reconnect they realise the memories of childhood are stronger than they imagined and as the journey continues both Christian and Georg come to realise what is really important in life.
At times predictable, the film nevertheless throws in a couple of surprises and results in a feel-good light comedy with life's unpredictability, wrong decisions, and familial pulls of the heart thrown in to make an enjoyable, almost 2-hour long film. The two brothers who are of completely different nature are well played by Bjarne Maedel (Georg) and Lars Eidinegr (Christian). Franka Potente (Run Lola Run, The Bourne Identity) stars in a minor role as a potential love interest.
The film is set partly in the beautiful Black Forest with its beautiful green (not black) scenery, as well as across other parts of Germany, ending at the Baltic Sea to complete the final task and thus the journey as travel companions. Each then continues on their own journey, having learned from each other, from their heart-to-heart conversations and importantly, from their own introspections along this slow but insightful journey.
The film is in the original with English subtitles.
Screening as part of the 2019 German Film Festival in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Byron Bay - check here for screening days and times.
