Variety Critics´ Choice 2002 / Klassenfahrt / Germany 2001
The mystery of puberty and the bitter-sweet fumblings of first love in Henner Winckler’s debut weave an expressive screen fabric in a deliberately relaxed tempo. A group of twenty adolescent Berliners, including the popular Isa and the loner Ronny, set off on a school outing which not only involves a large consumption of alcohol and cigarettes, but also provides an opportunity for enchanting and sincere incompetence.
The mysteries of puberty and the bittersweet fumblings of first love are given a quiet, nuanced spin in "School Trip." Incisively structured and deliberately downbeat, this first feature by director Henner Winckler refuses to conform to contempo youth storytelling techniques. Some two dozen Berlin teenagers are on their mandatory school-sponsored outing - in this case, a bus trip to the Baltic coast of Poland. Cigarettes and alcohol abound, as well as general horseplay. The story begins to focus on the popular Isa (Sophie Kempe) and loner Ronny (Steven Sperling) who begins, ever so slowly, to circle in on Isa. Rather than brassy teenagers imbued with the glib attributes of adulthood found in most Hollywood films, Steven, Isa and their classmates are at once amusingly awkward yet heartbreakingly sincere. Eddie Cockrell
86 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Henner Winckler
/ Screenplay Henner Winckler, Stefan Kriekhaus
/ Dir. of Photography Janne Busse
/ Music Cem Oral
/ Editor Bettina Böhler
/ Producer Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber
/ Production Schramm Film Koerner & Weber, ZDF
/ Cast Steven Sperling, Sophie Kempe, Maxi Warwel, Jakob Panzek, Bartek Blaszczyk, Fritz Roth, Gordon Schmidt, Mathias Liefeldt, Florian Thiele
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