Just expelled from school, Janosch trashes his mother's book- filled
house and sets out on his scooter to find his older pal, Koma, who has
moved to the town of Dortmund.
Tall, muscular, and violent, Koma works at a menial job in a beer-bottling
factory by day. By night he is a star of the skinhead scene: kick-boxer,
singer, all-round beer drinker, and street brawler. And after a night
of carousing and fighting, he returns to his well-ordered apartment
and Sandra, a pretty, pregnant, peroxide blond.
Janosch moves in with Koma, and as he tries to fit in with his new
family, comes to shave his head, starts drinking and brawling with the
skins, acquires a girlfriend, and loses his virginity. But soon there
is trouble in paradise. The punks confront the skins, and Koma's secret
hideout in the woods is destroyed. And when Janosch goes to get a tattoo
from Zottel, a gentle, longhaired, fire-eating hippie, emotional forces
are set in motion which lead to the shocking climax.
Shot in superbly artistic black-and-white photography, Oi!WARNING combines
action, image, and a perfect ear for dialogue in a powerful study of
skinhead subculture, male tribal violence, and the instability of the
male character as it matures from adolescent to adult: sexual tension,
possible excursions into homoeroticism, need for acceptance, and drive
for a distinctive identity. Also remarkable is the insightful contrast
the film draws between male and female desires.
Oi! WARNING is a stunning feature-film debut for its young codirectors,
Dominik and Benjamin Reding.
Nicole Guillemet, Sundance-Filmfestival
|