Heiners Filmseiten – Combat Sixteen (en)

Combat Sixteen (Kombat Sechzehn)

Russian title: Бой 16
Original title: Kombat Sechzehn

Alternative titles:
Main Frankfurt Oder

Youth movie – Germany
Production year: 2004
Movie length: 90 minutes

Director: Mirko Borscht
Writer: Mirko Borscht, Jana Erdmann
Cinematograph: Alexander Fischerkoesen
Music: Alexander Istschenko

Movie description:

Sixteen-year-old Georg has to move from Frankfurt am Main to Frankfurt an der Oder in former East Germany because his architect father Andreas, a single parent, has been given the chance to build a shopping centre there. In Frankfurt am Main Georg was surrounded by good friends, was in love with his girlfriend Jasmin and had a good chance of realising his big dream of winning the regional championship in taekwondo. He has to give up all this and start over in a completely unfamiliar environment. Georg, the new boy in town, quickly attracts the attention of Thomas, the leader of a radical rightwing clique in Georg’s new school class. Since Georg is unable to find a new taekwondo club, he takes the bait Thomas throws out for him and sets up a provisional training room at Thomas’ place. Despite initial opposition, Georg soon becomes more and more involved in the clique – until it comes to the big fight. Propelled by a mixture of fear, hopelessness and envy, Georg and Thomas soon find that the difference between them is not all that great.
»I wanted to convey an authenticity that is not fed by a documentary view from without, but rather by the inner life of the protagonists«, says Mirko Borscht about his feature film debut. »I am less interested in a precise stocktaking of the present situation than in showing the deficits we have in our relations to one another.«

Boy Actors